AskPat 115 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 115 of AskPat. I'm so happy you're joining me today. Thank you for all the love and support. Speaking of support, this show wouldn't be possible without our amazing sponsors, and today's sponsor is LegalZoom.com.

You know, America was built by innovators and dreamers just like you, and to celebrate, this month, LegalZoom is making it incredibly easy for you to file trademark or copyright applications, incorporate your business, or form an LLC, which is what I did when I visited LegalZoom.com way back in the day when I first started. Now, they'll provide you with the personal attention you need and help take care of all the details for you. It’s super easy, it's all done online. For a limited time, get a special price on trademark and copyright applications by using the referral code “Pat,” that's P-A-T, at checkout. Real quick, LegalZoom provides legal help through independent attorneys and self help, but they are not a law firm. Again, LegalZoom.com, referral code “Pat.”

Now let's get to today's question from Matt.

Matt: Hey, Pat. My name is Matt Donahue. My question is a little bit different from most of your questions since it's mostly focused on passive income and business specifically, I was wondering if you would share with us any changes in thought that you may have had over the years regarding personal finance, as you have run a successful business. Any beliefs that have changed? Or any habits that may have changed in your life regarding personal finance as you now have a successful business? And any resources, to that regard, whether you listen to any personal podcasts? Things of that sort. So, thanks for everything you do. I love both of your podcasts. Keep up the good work. Thanks.

Pat Flynn: Matt, thank you so much for your question today. You know a lot of things have changed mentally, and in terms of how I behave around and with money now, ever since I've started my own businesses and have become somewhat successful online. A lot of things. I have a list here I have in front of me. The first thing that came to mind when I heard your question, Matt, was the idea of . . . you know when I was working in architecture, for example, you know I was essentially living paycheck to paycheck. I mean I did pay a little bit to myself in terms of a 401(k), and I did invest a little bit in the market. However, I remember every time I bought something, or I purchased something, I would do an equation in my head in terms of how many hours it took to make that much money. And I would always regret these purchases because I would always think about how much work it took, how many hours of work I would either need to put in extra to make up for whatever it is I was purchasing. That's just not a healthy way to live, you know, you don't want to regret these purchases. You want whatever you purchased to be something rewarding, which is sort of how I feel now. And I'm also at a point where if I feel like there's something I want, or if there's something I need, or something I want to purchase that might be beyond my current budget, I can just do what I can to increase my income. You know, whether it's a new product, or a new business idea, or you know increasing my prices with my sponsors, or anything like that. Now it's like a reward, now it's like something I see the price, and I don't think of how many hours. I just think, “Okay, I'm going to work hard now so I can get that.” And it's sort of like a reward. I don't regret these purchases I make any more like I used to. That's been a huge mindset shift for me in terms of happiness, and stress levels, and things like that.

Secondly, back in the day, I never used to think of my business—or, excuse me, I never used to think of my personal finance like a business. And that's because I didn't have a business. But now that I do, I do treat my personal finance, and everything that happens, you know in terms of money coming into the family and money going out, like a business. I am very detailed, and I know everything that is coming in and coming out. I pay attention to it all. I use tools like PersonalCapital.com to keep track of all the ins and outs, and all that good stuff. Two, it's goal-oriented as well. I do have a lot of different accounts that are each for a specific purpose, like vacations and stuff like that, and so it actually pushes me, and helps motivate me to save more, and pay attention more to what's lying ahead. It sort of relates to what I mentioned before.

And thirdly, in terms of running my personal finance like I do my business, I seek help. I get help when I need it, I ask questions, and I educate myself. You know, I'm so excited all the time about learning new things about my business, and getting help and asking questions from mentors and people in my Mastermind Group. Well, I am not afraid to do the same thing anymore with my personal finance. Trying to figure out the best use of my money now so it could, again, like my business, with all the stuff I invest now, I want it to pay me back later. And so, you know, before I didn't want to talk about money with other people, really. You know, it was kind of I was, I don't know, embarrassed about it, or I just didn't think people would want to help. But now, I mean I talk to people and they want to help. You know I have people in place to help me, my CPA, and things like that.

Number four in terms of running my personal finance life like I do my business, I sort of just mentioned this, but, you know, I put in the hard work now to reap the benefits later. I know that if I educate myself, and I put in the hard work to research, and find the right people, and do the right things, and be detailed, and be goal-oriented, that it will benefit me later. And it has, you know, all that work I've done over the past four or five years in terms of investing the money that I've made, is paying off as well. So, in addition to what I talk about online, in terms of income, I have a good income coming in to my personal life and, you know, I don't really talk about that very much on my blogs but, you know, I'm doing pretty well in terms of what I've done with the money that I've earned as well. You know, I haven't wasted it, thankfully. I know a lot of people who have and, you know, they go all MC Hammer around everybody.

Another thing that my business has sort of taught me is, you know, the more I give, the more I get back. It's really . . . you know, the more I give in my business in terms of information, and help, and content, and just attention, and serving my audience, the more I get back in return. And that's sort of how I treat my personal finance life as well. I mean, now that I'm doing fairly well, I've been doing a lot more giving. You know, donations and things like that. And again those are things that I don't talk about very much because I think that, in terms of donating, I don't think that's anything I should just boast about. You know, that's just something I should do and be personally fulfilled with. I don't think I should do that and tell everybody in the world, “Hey guys, I'm awesome. Look how much money company.” No, I just want to do that anyways. Or not company, but cause. So that's what that's about.

And lastly, in terms of money and personal finance, I always know that I can earn more. You know, I didn't believe that before. When I was working nine to five, I didn't believe that I could earn more because I only had a set number of hours during the week, or a set number of hours I was allowed to do overtime. You know, I was making a little bit more by staying past eight hours a day, you know, time and a half, sometimes two times because of the projects we were working on at the firm. But now I know if I want to earn more, I can do the work now to do that. You know, I earn what I deserve, and that's a great place to be. And so if you're not there yet, obviously you're thinking about doing something on your own, so you can earn what you deserve.

Now it's not going to happen right away. You probably will put a lot of time and effort into it up front, but again, like I said earlier, the more you give, the more you serve, the more you can solve people's problems. First, understand what those problems are, and then create solutions for them, or help people find those solutions. The better it's going to be for everybody.

So, Matt, thank you so much for your question today, I really, really appreciate it, and an AskPat t-shirt is going to be headed your way. For those of you listening, if you have a question you'd like potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com. And, like I mentioned earlier, LegalZoom is today's sponsor. Amazing company. I've used them several times in the past for things like copyright, for trademarking, and, of course, incorporating my business. That's how I formed my LLC. It was though LegalZoom.com. If you go to LegalZoom.com and use the referral code “Pat,” you'll get a discount on prices for trademark and copyright applications, and remember, they provide legal help through independent attorneys and self help, but they're not a law firm.

And lastly, as always, I love to end with a quote, and today's quote comes from Robin Sharma. And this quote is, “Miss life's simplest blessings, and you'll miss out on life's greatest joys.”

Cheers, thanks so much, and I'll see you on the next episode of AskPat.