AP 0670: Is It Possible for Someone to Replicate Your Success?

AskPat 670 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What up, everybody? Pat Flynn here! Welcome to Episode 670 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today.

We have a great question today from Ruben, but before we get to that, I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is ZipRecruiter.com. So, if you're looking to add more members to your team, check out ZipRecruiter.com because it makes it really easy to do so. You can find the best candidates in a very easy fashion. Instead of going out there to the hundreds of different job sites out there and actually posting who you're looking for, just post it in one place! ziprecruiter.com/pat. You post it and with one or two clicks, it gets sent out to all those different job sites for you. They also have a database and they can find the best candidates for you so that you can get that person in your business fast, to help you grow and scale your business much quicker, and not have to deal with the hassle of recruiting 'cause it's pretty crazy sometimes. But, ZipRecruiter makes it easy. So if you want to give it a shot for free, all you have to do is go to ziprecruiter.com/pat. Again, it's ziprecruiter.com/pat.

All right, here's today's question from Reuben.

Ruben: Hey, Pat. How ya doin'? This is Ruben in San Diego, and I have a question for you. My background is a few years of multi-level marketing and bottom line is that I'm a little tired of that. It's a little complicated … multi-level marketing, that is. But anyways, I'm trying to venture off with this new online marketing and I'm trying to go this route. But there's a saying that goes around in multi-level marketing, which I think is really good and it's true, and that is, “It doesn't matter what works; what matters is if it's duplicable.” And that makes sense for multi-level marketing, for that industry, but ever since I heard that, I've tried to apply that in all areas of my life. And, well, this is not going to be the exception, so my question to you is what you do, what you've built, this business that you've built, is it duplicable? Is it possible for somebody else to do what you're doing or what you've done or what you did? Can you take somebody and, not that you're gonna do it, or maybe you will—but basically, can you take somebody through all the steps and have him almost replicate what you've done? It doesn't have to be overnight, but is it possible for somebody to do exactly what you did, all that you've accomplished? I ask because I follow other podcasters and other online marketers, and I've asked a couple of others and their answer is, “I don't know if it's duplicable, but it works for me,” which kind of makes me cringe my teeth. But I just wanted to see what your thoughts were, and, again, is what you're doing duplicable? Can you teach it to others?

Pat Flynn: Hey, Ruben. What's up? Thank you so much for the question today. I really appreciate it. So, it doesn't matter what works; what matters is if it's duplicable. I have to say that that's … and, I hope I don't disrespect you or anything like that in saying this, but, to me, and with what I teach, that quote just does not make sense to me and shouldn't be one that one follows. Because the thing that matters most is if it works. If you're selling anything, if you're providing information to anybody, if it doesn't work, you're not going to be trusted, you're not going to become authority. Duplicable makes sense because obviously you want it to be scalable and things like that, but if what you're creating is duplicable and you're trying to build a business and somebody else could duplicate it, then it's actually gonna work against you because it's not something that is unique, and in order to stand out in the online business world, in order to be a personal brand, in order to build something that's different from everybody else, you don't want it to be duplicable.

Now, I will say that I'm guessing that you mean, “Well, is this business model that I'm teaching duplicable?” Yes, absolutely. Thousands of people who have listened to this show, AskPat, Smart Passive Income, who have read my blog for years, they are putting this stuff into action. We've featured many of their success stories on the Smart Passive Income podcast, so the business model is duplicable. But the business itself should not be, the business should be unique; it should be something where you are providing in your own best way, in your own style, in your own angle a solution to a person's pain or problem. And it absolutely matters if it works, because if it doesn't, you're screwed. If it doesn't work, everybody's going to know in this online world where we're all connected, and everybody's gonna go away from you and to the people where they're actually getting stuff that actually does work.

So, I can see where this might apply in MLM, but I have never been in the MLM world. I actually was recruited to do some MLM stuff back in the day when I didn't know I was going to be recruited to do MLM stuff and I just got out fast because that's a world where, and it sounds like you are in agreement with this … where … business shouldn't be done in that way, I think. And no offense to anybody doing MLM … I know some people who have done very well with MLM. You know, Hal Elrod was working for Cutco, which is an MLM company, and he was killin' it. And he was providing a lot of value and he was one of the top salespeople before he got in his accident. But, for me, that's just not how I want to run my business.

So I would say, to flip the script, what matters is if it works. And if it works and you deliver it in your own unique style, then it can't be duplicated, and that's how you build a long-term business in this online world. So, Ruben, I hope that makes sense. Maybe I misunderstood what the question was, but based on what I heard … you want to build something unique. The cool thing is, in the online world, it's very easy to do that. Just be yourself and provide value in your own way. Even if you are sharing information that's similar to other people, even if you are providing a solution that's similar to a solution that's already out there, as long as you know that nobody's like you … that you are 100% original because you are 100% you, then it just makes it really easy because you don't have to worry about copying other people. And you shouldn't want to do that, because what makes us all stand out is the human element, and that human-to-human interaction is what's gonna make us have the raving fans that can keep us moving forward in our business and in our life.

So, Ruben, thank you so much for the question. Very thought-provoking, and I'd love to hear what other people think. AskPat 670 is the episode, so use that hashtag on Twitter if you want to discuss this off of the show. #AskPat670 and we'll go from there.

So, Ruben, thank you so much for the question. I wish you all the best of luck, and I want to thank you again for the question. For everybody else out there who has a question, if you'd like to see it potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to AskPat and you can ask a question and we'll do our best to answer it here. A lot of questions coming in … we can't get to them all, obviously, but we're listening to them all, that's for sure.

So, thank you so much. I appreciate you, and here is a quote to finish off the day by Steve Jobs. He says, “If you are working on something that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed; the vision pulls you.” Cheers, take care, and I'll see you on the next episode of AskPat. Bye.