by: AskPat 692 Episode Transcript
Pat Flynn: What's up everybody and welcome to Episode 692 of Ask Pat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always, I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions five days a week.
All right. Now here's today's question from Nick.
Nick Coughlin: Hey Pat. My name is Nick Coughlin and I publish a monthly digital magazine called Compassionate Man. So I have a somewhat embarrassing question to ask you but I have to imagine others in your audience have experienced the same thing. So many business is less than a year old and I'm getting ready to publish my fifth issue of the magazine next month. I'm nowhere near breaking even at this point and yes, that's a concern but I know that I do need to be patient as things build. I do understand that it takes a while to start making money or it can take a while.
Anyway, that's not what has me really concerned. I'm really concerned about the fact that I'm not enjoying this business at all. I don't enjoy putting a magazine together every month and I just didn't realize that that was gonna happen. You know, I don't have any disillusions of creating a product and sitting back for the next 30 years raking in cash but this model that I have going right now is almost the antithesis of a passive form of income. So what advice do you have for people like me who've dedicated massive amounts of time and money and effort into a project like this only to realize that they don't even enjoy running the business?
Thanks Pat. I look forward to hearing your answer.
Pat Flynn: Hey, Nick. Thank you so much for the question. I really appreciate this and your transparency and your honesty here and I think a lot of people in the audience would be able to relate to this for sure so I appreciate you stepping up and doing that and asking this question and having me be able to you know, kind of work my way into an answer here.
So the first thing I would say is I won't be able to give you a straight up answer because this kinda thing, understanding the getting into a business and just not feeling it anymore, I mean I think we can all relate to something like that. We all spend time on stuff in our lives where we just we're like, “Why are we doing this?” And sometimes we pull pack but sometimes we push through. And we push through in a different way or a different direction and I don't know what it's gonna take and every different person has a different case and will have to go through different experiences to figure out the right path.
But there's a few things I would say and I would ask you, Nick. If I had a chance to talk to you right now. I would say, “Well why? Why don't you feel energetic about this business?” The other question I would ask you is, “Well, why did you start this in the first place?” I think a lot of times, people lose steam and you know, not all businesses are gonna be, especially in the beginning stages, you know, involve things that we are always really, really passionate about or things that we love to do all the time. I think we also have to just understand that.
Like sometimes there's gonna be stuff we need to do in our business in order to grow it, in order to scale it, to get it to a point where it's profitable, that we may not want to do forever. So that's another component of it, Nick, is that these things that your doing now that you just dread are these things that you specifically will continue to have to do? Or is it more than just the tasks that your doing or is it the actual business itself?
So you know, those are a couple questions I would ask. But again I would ask you, “Well why did you get it started in the first place?” Was it sort of a low hanging opportunity that you tried out and it just didn't work out, which is often the case. And I would actually recommend, if you had a chance, Nick, and if you wanted to send me an email and ask me I'll be more than happy to hook you up with a free copy of my book Will It Fly? And in this book, in part one, there's a very specific set of exercises that I take a reader through that helps them figure out their why and what it is that they're looking for so that their business ideas can match their life goals.
‘Cause you're not alone Nick. I have spoken to many successful entrepreneurs who are profitable who have hundreds of employees, who have earned over eight figures who are unhappy with their lives. Who are unhappy with their business. Who want to exit or get out. And it's because of, well there's a lot of different reasons for it, but you know they've climbed up that ladder and they're at the top of it but they're up at the top of the wrong ladder.
And so these exercises that I take you through, the first one is called the Airport Test, second one is called the History Test, and third one is called the Shark Bait test. So keep those in mind as you read through. So Nick, shoot me an email, let's just send you a free copy of the book so you can work your way through those exercises, so you can sort of start to define what it is and maybe you'd be able to see exactly what is it about this particular business that you have now that you just don't like.
‘Cause one of the hardest things to do is to make a next move if you cannot yet define what it is that's upsetting you or holding you back now. A lot of times, people try to make a decision on what to do next without ever establishing where they're at right now. To truly define that and to truly define those pains and problems so that they could figure out, “Okay well I don't wanna do this anymore. I could take this current business that I have and rework it in a way. Same brand just a different approach”. So that could be a solution. Or it might have to be a completely new setup.
So Nick. Shoot me an email. I wanna send that to you. I'd love for you to go through these exercises and to have you discover what this is and lastly, I would just also congratulate you. I know that might sound weird but I want to congratulate you on discovering the fact that you are not into it right now. That is so important. And I think a lot of people try to deny the fact that they're not into what it is that they're doing for a number of different reasons. But it is not until you finally own the fact that you're truly not happy with what you're doing right now. That you're just not into it. That you can then finally start to do things that would take you toward happiness and the things that you actually do like and the business that you could be passionate about and proud about.
So Nick, hopefully that helps get your gears going. Maybe start brainstorming some stuff and I'd love to have a conversation with you about this because I think it's really important. So if you have a chance to, shoot me an email, you can pick up Will It Fly? and then I'd love to have a conversation with you about that and hopefully that could help you validate some of what you're going through right now and potentially some next steps.
So thank you so much for the question Nick and you know, on top of that, I definitely want to send you an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show. Thank you so much Nick for again, being honest and upfront about that. And for everybody else out there listening. If you have a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show, all you have to do is head on over to askpat.com and you can ask right there on that page.
Thank you so much. I appreciate you and here's a quote to finish off the day by none other than Richard Branson, the man. He says, “The main thing is, if you have an idea for a business, as I say, screw it, just do it. Give it a go. You may fall flat on your face but you pick yourself up and keep trying until you succeed.” And I hope you can tell I obviously picked that quote for this particular episode for a reason. Nick, you got this. Everybody else out there listening, you got this. Let's go.
