AP 0649: Why Are You an Advisor to Other Companies?

AskPat 649 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What's up everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to Episode 649 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today, and as always I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions five days a week.

We have a great question coming in from Adam, but before we get to Adam's question, I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is Braintree. So, it's a beautiful thing when your customers want to pay you, obviously, right? But, what if they could pay you in every single way possible? Well, Braintree lets you accept all forms of payment, including PayPal, Apple Pay, Android Pay, and more. Now you can take 'em all, also, in over 130 different currencies. So, as your company grows, Braintree will stay by your side from your first dollar to your billionth dollar. All it takes is a couple lines of code to get started and to learn more about this payment system check 'em out at BraintreePayments.com/pat. Again, that's BraintreePayments.com/pat.

Alright, now here's today's question from Adam.

Adam: Hey Pat, Adam Spencer from morningroar.com here. I'm just sitting here reading somewhere in the beginning of your book Will It Fly? It's in the part where filling out what a great life would look like in five years from now, and I'm reading the bit that says, “I'm an advisor for a dozen different companies and organizations that I love, whose products or services I enjoy using.” My question is, I'm just curious to know what the goal is for being an advisor to these companies. Is it purely . . . Is it monetary? Is it because you just absolutely love these companies and want to see them go in the right direction? Is it a mix of those? Is this something else? I'm just really curious to know what your thoughts are behind that, what your motivations are. If you'd share those, that would be amazing. Thanks, Pat.

Pat Flynn: Hey Adam, what's up? Thank you so much for the question. Again this is Adam from morningroar, like lion roar (roar noise), morningroar.com. Now, to answer your question, what is my goal with being an advisor for these different companies? You mentioned a lot of what is important to me. For one, I love great companies who do great things and if I can in anyway help them succeed, if I can in any way influence what else they could do to help them succeed and help my audience succeed, then I want to be a part of that.

You might have seen this already with something like Leadpages. So, I'm an advisor for Leadpages, for example, and also ConvertKit. You've heard me talk about those quite a bit. I've been able to help them get started and launch, but I've also, in doing so, have gotten access to people over there who then I can talk about what is really needed in this space, and what kind of features should be added, and whatnot. Which helps not only myself, but also you, too, who are in the online business world as well. So, that's kind of a big part of it, the ability to not only have these relationships with these companies that might be a little bit more formal and we end up, on paper, we're having conversations every week. And, we're talking about what's working, what's not, and what we can do to improve. That is great. Having those relationships are fantastic, but more than that I am able to influence what they do to help all of you. That's my primary goal.

Coming along with that, of course, is potential monetary compensation for that, and that comes in all different forms. I'm not going to get specific for any of these companies on what those deals look like. However, that might include something like stock options or owning a percentage of the company. It might include a monthly retainer fee to have access to me and get monthly advisory calls and whatnot. So, that's what it looks like too. And the money, you know, I would do it without the money there. I've talked to some people about these deals that I've set up and many people were like, “Pat, you should be getting more for your time.” And I'm like, “No, I'm here to help these companies.” And, I know that if I can help these companies, it's gonna come back my way many times over because, in doing so, I'm able to influence what they do, influence a little about the direction they go, and just be a sounding board for certain decisions that they have to make. And, I love having that control and that power. I don't make all the decisions but I'm able to just, at least, plant seeds in their brains on what can and should be done.

We've seen a lot of progress with things like Leadpages. I was the one who came up with idea for the LeadBoxes, which has become a very popular feature there. And, they've obviously taken that to the next level since my initial seed idea and I love that. That's why that's there and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing there.

Overall, I'd like to be an advisor for a dozen or so companies. In looking ahead at that, that would be plenty for me to be involved with, where I'd be able to have a say in certain things, be able to influence certain decisions that might happen, or at least be there as a sounding board for those companies. Again, because I love those companies. I've been asked to be an advisor for several other companies and I say no because I'm very picky and choosy with who I work with, who I'm associated with, and whatnot. But, also, at the same time, I know that there's a chance for some of these companies to blow up and explode and I mean that in a great way. You know, to just crush it in terms of earnings and those investments of time. And, my little earnings that I get from them could end up being substantial. That's how people like Tim Ferriss and Gary Vaynerchuck have earned a lot of their wealth is through the advisory that they have with other companies or getting in early on rounds with things like Uber and Twitter and whatnot. And, that's kind of it. I'm having fun with it. I love it.

So, that's really it, Adam, and I hope that makes sense. And, yeah, that's a cool thing. I'm very blessed to be in a position where people are actually looking to me for advice. Not just people in my audience, but other companies, too, who respect what I do. And, I have a lot of you to thank for that because you are there and you're getting a lot of value from what I do. And, you're taking my recommendations and whatnot. But, I don't take that lightly either. I also know that I have a lot of responsibility with where I'm at. I also know that I could just promote a product or say that I'm an advisor for a company and, boom, a lot of things will happen with that company. Similar to what happened with ConvertKit. I was able to, through a webinar, convert over 700 new subscribers, which was awesome. And, I'm very happy to do that and it's a win for everybody, I think. But, I have to be very careful about who I work with, who I recommend, and I don't take that responsibility lightly. So, you can always ensure I will do my best and do over the top work to make sure that if I do work with companies as an advisor, that it is a company that I am truly in love with. That if I recommend a product that it's a product that I've used and truly feel like it would help.

So, Adam, thanks so much for the question. I appreciate it and I wish you all the best. And, everybody out there listening, thank you for your time. So, we're gonna send Adam a tee shirt for having his question featured hear on the show. And, for those of you listening, if you have a question that you'd like to be potentially featured here, just head on over to AskPat, click on the record button, and ask away. Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

And, to finish off here's a quote by Scott Stratten from UnMarketing. He says, “Too often, feeling intimidated becomes our excuse not to be awesome.”

You guys are all awesome. Don't feel intimidated. Use that resistance as a sign that whatever it is that you're looking to do is actually something worth doing because there's always something great on the other end. Thanks so much and I'll see you next week in the next episode of AskPat. Bye.