SPI 928: How to Build Your Creator Empire with Superfans

SPI 928: How to Build Your Creator Empire with Superfans

Pat Flynn: What if I told you that a YouTuber just beat Hollywood at its own game, without a single studio executive, without a massive budget, and without really asking anyone for permission? His name is Markiplier. You might have heard this in the news. Maybe you know him, maybe you don’t, but what he did recently should change how all of us think about our businesses, especially if you are a personal brand and you’re a creator.

So he recently made a movie called Iron Lung. It’s based off of a video game, actually, and at one point, it was the number one movie in America, which is crazy. So far, it has grossed over 48 million dollars, and here’s the kicker. He did it completely independently. No studio, no gatekeepers, not through Hollywood.

Just him, his audience, and a vision. But here’s what’s really wild about this. This isn’t a fluke. This is the future and it’s happening right now all around us. Creators from everywhere are building empires. They are taking control. They’re proving that when you have an audience that truly cares about you, what I call superfans, you don’t need permission from anyone to build something incredible.

You don’t have to go through all the red tape and all the politics and any of that kind of stuff. You just need some vision and of course, like I said, the superfans, the audience. So today I want to show you exactly how this works, why it matters, and how you can start building your own creator empire, even if you’re just getting started.

You know, you don’t need millions of followers to do this, you just need the right followers. So, let’s dive in. So, let me tell you about that lung the Iron Lung story because it’s absolutely fascinating. Markiplier, his real name is Mark Fischbach, he’s been on YouTube for over a decade. I’ve been following him for a while.

He’s blown up, he’s a live streamer and creates amazing videos, very personable. He’s built an audience of 38 million subscribers by playing games and being genuinely entertaining. And one of those games that he played was called Iron Lung. It’s an indie horror game. And he And it’s kind of a crazy premise, right?

You’re trapped in a submarine, in an ocean of blood but Mark fell in love with the story. The story goes even deeper than that, obviously. I mean, they’re on a different planet looking for something to save, you know, resources to save Earth, and on one of these planets, a resource was found, but unfortunately it was In a sea of blood, in, in the ocean on this planet and then horror, all this stuff happens.

Anyway mark fell in love with that story and the atmosphere and the world that the game creator had built. So he did something most people would think is crazy. He bought the rights to adapt it into a film. But this is work, it’s interesting, right? Mark didn’t go to Hollywood, he didn’t pitch it to studios like most people would, or everybody does, he just started making the movie.

He spent about 3 million of his own money, he filmed it in 35 days, I remember a behind the scenes video of him building the sort of submarine where most of the movie would be taking place he wrote it he starred in it, he directed it. Produced it, and when it came time to distribute it, he didn’t wait for some executive to decide if this movie was worthy.

He went directly to his audience. He then told them about the movie. He asked them to request it at their local theaters, and you know what happened? His community, his superfans, mobilized. They flooded theaters with requests. They created a grassroots campaign. They made it impossible for theater chains to ignore.

And so his goal was to have 40 or 50 theaters, I think. I remember him saying It was in over 3, 000 theaters worldwide, and in the opening weekend it made 18 million dollars, and like I said before, total gross so far is 48 million dollars, and it’s climbing. But here’s what’s really important, this wasn’t just about the money, this was about proving that creators don’t need the traditional systems anymore.

When you have an audience that trusts you, that believes in you, that wants to see you succeed, you have something more powerful than any studio budget. You have superfans. I have a smaller mini version of this story, which actually happened. Back in 2015. So in 2015, I published my second book. My first one was called Let Go, and that was published in 2013.

But this, I felt, was my first kind of real business book. Will It Fly? How to Test Your Next Business Idea So You Don’t Waste Your Time and Money, which is still, people are still buying it today. Now, 11 years later, which, thank you, and it’s amazing. I definitely wrote that with being timeless in mind. But yeah, I didn’t want to wait for it to get in the bookstores because it was self published, I knew I didn’t have the distribution at this point, I didn’t traditionally publish it like I did with Lean Learning, but I just had an idea after it launched, it became a Wall Street Journal bestseller, I was like, oh my gosh, this book has legs.

If only bookstores knew about this, if only people would go to their bookstores and ask for it, then maybe it would get there. So, guess what I did? I mobilized my superfans. I sent emails out. I said, Hey, everybody on this day, I think it was a day in March of 2016. I’m not exactly sure. I have to go back and look at a lot of the pictures because I said, go to your local Barnes and Noble, request, Will It Fly by Pat Flynn.

It will not be there. But the idea being if enough people ask for it, it might show up in a few. And I said, take a picture of you at the bookstore and, like, I will choose a random group of people to win some Amazon cards, right? I had to add a little bit of a of a thank you in there for some people.

And I guess hundreds of people did it, maybe thousands, I don’t know, a lot of people didn’t message me who maybe did it. Well, fast forward a few weeks later, one of those followers who caught wind of that challenge went into a Barnes Noble and guess what? Will It Fly was there! And so I made some calls around San Diego, and I found one bookstore in San Diego that held it, it was down in Grossmont, and I went there with my family, and I filmed it.

And this was a lifelong goal of mine. In fact, in 2012, I had written a blog post saying that one day, I would love to bring my kids to a Barnes Noble, in 2012 my daughter was born, my second child. And I said, one day, I’d love to bring the kids to Barnes Noble and be there and show them that daddy’s book is on the shelves.

And I still have that video today. And it’s one of my favorite memories. And it didn’t happen by chance. It happened because A, I wrote a good book, but B, I mobilized the superfans. So of course that didn’t become a New York Times bestseller, that didn’t become a movie or anything like that. But it was very special to me and it only happened because of many of you.

Now, Markiplier isn’t the only one doing this on a grander scale. This is a part of a kind of bigger revolution that’s happening right now. I mean, let me, name off a few others. Look at MrBeast, right? He’s not just a YouTuber anymore. He’s building a media mega empire. He’s got, you know, restaurants, chocolate bars, game shows on Amazon, theme parks.

He’s proving that a creator can compete with and often beat traditional companies. It’s amazing. Ryan Trahan has, I think, the number two candy company in the world now, and he’s trying to beat nerds or something like that. I can’t remember the candy company he’s trying to beat, but he talks about it in his videos.

They’re at Target. Joyride, I think, is the name of his candy company, and it’s awesome. Emma Chamberlain. She didn’t just become a YouTuber. She’s a fashion icon now, launching a coffee company. She sits front row at Paris Fashion Week. Logan Paul, KSI with Prime, the energy drink. It’s crazy. But it’s possible.

And here’s what’s happening again in my world. I started Deep Pocket Monster, my Pokemon YouTube channel, in 2021. It now has over 2 million subscribers. There’s a secondary Shorts channel that has over 2. 5 million subscribers. The Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, the YouTube Shorts channel, all together total over 8. 8 million subscribers. It’s allowed me to, gosh, generate more revenue, yes, but I’ve created an event called Card Party, a live event that brings thousands of people together every year, in fact. As the time of this recording, or at the time of this recording, we are about a month away from our San Diego 2026 event.

We should have about nine to ten thousand people there, and that is gonna be our, I think that’s our sixth event, right? 2023 was when we launched, 24, 25, 26. Oh no, 1 in 23, 1 in 24, 2 in 25, so this will be our 5th, and then we’re doing 6 this summer in Fort Lauderdale, and 7 in Dallas. This is the 4th generation of Card Party, but the 7th one, because each year is themed.

Anyway, sorry all that to say, thousands of people come out, and we spend zero dollars on marketing. Zero dollars on marketing. I just started creating content I was passionate about. I built an audience around that passion and then created experiences for the audience. This is the creator revolution. We’re not just making content anymore.

We are building businesses, creating products, hosting events, and yes, making movies, which I would love to do one day. So why is this happening now, is a good question. Why are creators suddenly able to compete with massive corporations? Three reasons.

Reason number one, direct access to audiences for the first time in history. Creators, you and me, we can build direct relationships with our audiences without intermediaries, right? No TV network, no radio stations, no publishers, just you and the people who care about what you do.

Number two, the barriers to entry are much, much lower, right? The tools to create professional quality content. And professional, remember, doesn’t mean necessarily, like, the best camera equipment. I think professional quality can mean just the storytelling. I mean, look at Ryan Trahan’s videos. The tools to create websites, process payments to distribute products, access to 3PLs, third party logistics companies to sell the merchandise, all this kind of stuff, right?

They’re all accessible and affordable now. What used to require a massive corporation or large quantities can now be done by one person with a laptop, right?

And third, trust and authenticity matter now more than ever. People are tired of corporate messaging. We’re tired of AI. We want real people. People want to support real people, real stories, real passion.

And when you build genuine relationships with your audience, they don’t just consume your content. They become advocates for your brand. They want to fly that flag so high that they wear the t shirts. They talk about it. People tell them to shut up about it because you’ve become a part of their lives so much.

And here’s the thing that traditional companies are starting to understand, right? Creator loyalty is different. It is deeper. It’s more personal. It’s not just like a billboard on the side of a road and then people drive by. It’s a message in a person’s ear that transmits to their brain. And when someone loves a TV show, right, they might watch it, they might talk about it.

But when someone loves a creator, they’ll buy their products, attend their events, and yes, request their movies at local theaters. That’s the power of superfans.

And this brings me to something I’ve been talking about for years, since I wrote the book on it, the concept of superfans. In the book, I define a superfan as someone who You know, they don’t just consume your content, but they actively promote it to other people.

They’re not just customers, they’re advocates. And here’s what Markiplier understood that most creators miss. You don’t need millions of superfans, you need the right superfans. Right? Yes, I know he has 38 million subscribers, but most of those are not superfans. Like, how many of them actually went to see Iron Lung?

Probably a tiny fraction, right? Maybe 1 to 2%. But that tiny fraction was enough to make the movie a massive success. Not because the budget of the film was 300 million and he spent all that money on marketing and special effects and all this stuff, right? It was a tiny fraction that made it happen, of his superfans, of his audience.

Because they didn’t just buy the tickets, they convinced their friends to buy tickets, they shared it on social media, they made it an event. This is how I caught wind of it. And this is the power of superfans, they multiply your impact. And I see this already with Deep Pocket Monster all the time. I don’t need every Pokemon fan in the world to watch my videos.

I just need the ones who really connect with me. The way that I do it, the approach that I have, my personality, my way of looking at the hobby, and those people don’t just watch, they share, they comment, they show up to Card Party, they buy the merchandise, they check out Vault X, which is the binder company that I recommend, and then I get paid a commission for that.

They become a part of the community. We share the same language, right? And when you have that kind of relationship with your audience, you can do things that seem impossible. You can launch a product without a marketing budget. You could sell an event without traditional advertising. You can get a movie into 3,000 theaters without a studio.

That will be me one day. Because your audience becomes your marketing team. Now, I know what some of you might be thinking now. You might be like, Pat, this sounds great, but I don’t have 38 million subscribers. I don’t have millions of dollars to make a movie. And you’re right. Most of us don’t. But here’s what you’re missing.

You don’t need millions of anything to start your business empire. So let me give you some perspective. When I started Smart Passive Income back in 2008, I had zero followers. When I launched my first product, the Lead exam AP walk the lead AP exam walkthrough, which is a ebook study guide to help people pass the the lead exam.

I mean, I didn’t even have an email list yet. I just had a few hundred people visiting my website every day, and that was enough to generate six figures in revenue. Only in 2010 did I finally get smart and start an email list. When I started Deep Pocket Monster in 2021, I had zero credibility in the Pokemon space.

None. I had no collection. I had, I hardly knew any other Pokemon other than Pikachu and Charizard and maybe Snorlax. But I was passionate. I wanted to learn. I was consistent. I was sharing my journey as I went. And I focused on serving the audience that I was building by telling good stories. The first Card Party event that was in 2023, I mean, we had, 1800, 2000 people, but those people had such an amazing experience that they told their friends that the next time around we sold out the hotel and the tickets for the event.

And we you know, we almost tripled our capacity, right? You don’t start with an empire. You start with a foundation and that foundation is one that’s built one superfan at a time. In a world of entrepreneurs and creators who are trying to scale and trying to automate and trying to automate fans and traffic.

At some point you have to realize that not everything needs to be scalable, not everything has to be automated. And when you’re creating for superfans, those are individual experiences that those people are having. And yes, they can be individual experiences people are having with the ins and outs of your brand, but when you take a little bit more effort and energy to make them feel a sense of belonging, to make them feel special, this superfan effect.

So start with a hundred true fans, not a hundred thousand, just a hundred people who genuinely care about what you’re doing. That’s the first goal. Get a hundred true fans. Serve them incredibly well. Give them value. Build relationships. Make them feel seen and heard. Ask them what they want. Get them involved, right?

Don’t guess what products to create or what services to offer. Ask your superfans what would help them the most. And then start small. Create something small. It doesn’t have to be a movie or a theme park. It could be a digital product, a small event, a simple service, and then let your superfans spread the word.

When you create something great for people who already love you, they’re going to tell others, especially if you go above and beyond to enhance that experience for them. That is how empires are built. Not overnight, but one layer at a time. So let’s go through a practical blueprint to do this. This is how you actually start building your creator empire.

So let me give you a practical blueprint. Step one. Choose your niche, right? You need to be known for something specific. I’m known for entrepreneurship and education and separately for family friendly Pokemon content, but what’s your thing? What is your thing? If you need help finding your thing, if you’re literally at the beginning of your journey, then I would recommend picking up Will It Fly?

Or coming into the SPI community. You might already be a part of the SPI community, Check out the Smart From Scratch course, that literally is what it teaches you to do. To find your lane. To figure out what you could be good at to help others with. So that’s step one. Step two, build consistently. This isn’t about going viral.

In fact, see a lot of people who have been working so hard, trying to be consistent, and they get one viral video, but it’s usually for something completely random and it’s not attracting the right audience. Right? Stay consistent, show up, and eventually, the algorithms will help you find the right people.

It’s about showing up consistently for the people who care about your niche. Quality and consistency beat viral moments every time. Yes, you could have a viral moment with quality and consistency that does match up with your audience, but just going viral to go viral is pointless. In fact, it can hurt you.

Step three. Engage deeply. Step one was choose your niche. Step two, build consistently. Step three, engage deeply. Don’t just broadcast. Broad ask. Have conversations. Ask questions, respond to comments, build relationships, not just an audience. It’s not a one way conversation. It’s not even a two way conversation.

It’s multi conversation. People who are fans finding each other as well. That’s where community comes into play. Step four. Identify your superfans. Who are the people who are always engaging with you? Who seem to always share your content? Who asks thoughtful questions? These are your superfans. Pay attention to them.

If you already sell a product or multiple products, they are people who’ve bought all of them, or maybe who were the first to purchase. You can and should identify them. You should know them. Who are they? What are their likes? Where do they come from? How did they find you? What are they doing to talk about you?

How can you support them in doing that? And how can you thank them for what they’re doing for you? Step five, create your first product if you haven’t already. It doesn’t have to be big. It could be a 10 digital guide. We’ve had people like Liz Wilcox, our community director here, who has a $9 membership.

She’s got, I don’t know, 4000. 5000 people in that membership. That’s huge. That’s recurring income. Maybe it’s a 50 course, a 100 consultation. The goal is to prove that your audience will invest in what you create. Step number six, listen and iterate. Your superfans are going to tell you what they want next.

They’re also going to tell you when you step down the wrong path, right? Build what they’re asking for, get them involved. When people are involved. They’re invested.

And step number seven, think bigger. Once you’ve proven that you created value for your audience, start thinking bigger about those opportunities.

Maybe it’s an event, maybe it’s physical products, partnerships, maybe even your own version of Iron Lung. The key is to build each step on the foundation. of the previous one.

Finally, here is the most important part. You need to shift your mindset, right? Stop thinking like a content creator and start thinking like a business owner.

Stop thinking about views and subscribers and start thinking about relationships and value. Stop asking permission and start taking ownership. Obviously, you still want to follow the rules and not overstep and, you know, you don’t take somebody’s IP. You know, Markiplier still had a license. There’s a reason we didn’t call it the Pokemon event.

It’s called Card Party. We are very aware of Pokemon and their intellectual property. We want to work with them. We want to collaborate with them. The traditional gatekeepers, however, studios, publishers, record labels, TV networks, they’re not going away completely, obviously, but they’re no longer the only path to success.

That’s the cool thing about this whole thing, right? And you have the tools. You have the platforms. You have the opportunity to build direct relationships with people who care about what you do. There’s no other time in the world that we’ve been able to do this on this kind of scale. So what are you going to build?

So here’s my challenge. Stop waiting for someone to discover you, stop waiting for the perfect moment, stop waiting for permission. Start building your empire today. It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be yours. Maybe a YouTube channel about something you’re passionate about.

Maybe adding a newsletter for the people in your industry. Maybe it’s a small product that solves a problem you understand. Whatever it is, Start building relationships around it. Find your first 100 superfans. And serve them incredibly well. Because here is what I know for sure. The creators who are building empires today, they’re not the ones with the most talent or the biggest budgets.

Those are the ones, of course, we see all the time because they’re making the news, but there are a lot of people out there who are building empires who we don’t even know about. And I want to feature some of them here on this podcast. They’re the ones who understand that in a world of infinite content, genuine relationships are the scarcest resources.

And when you have those relationships, when you have superfans, you can build anything. Thanks for listening to the Smart Passive Income podcast. This episode really spoke to you and I hope it did. I hope you take action and I hope you tell me about it. Find me on social media and let me know what you think. Because the Creator Revolution isn’t just about the Markipliers and Mr. Beasts of the world. It’s about all of us who are brave enough to build something meaningful. Your empire is waiting. Go build it. Thank you so much.