SPI 948: The Best and Worst Reactions to the SPI Sale with Pat and Matt

SPI 948: The Best and Worst Reactions to the SPI Sale with Pat and Matt

Liz Wilcox: All right, so let’s just start this bad boy. It’s a week out from the announcement. I’ve got Matt and Pat here. I’m Liz Wilcox, the new owner of SPI. What the heck? Ooh. That still feels so foreign.

Pat Flynn: Official.

Liz Wilcox: It feels so foreign.

Pat Flynn: Official and known.

Liz Wilcox: Yes, official, but still weird. So I wanna ask you, Pat, first, because I feel like you probably got a lot of people DM’ing you and stuff.

Like, what was… Well, first, what was that feeling like, and what were people saying? ‘Cause I’m nosy.

Pat Flynn: Man, I mean, I was just as nervous as you were leading up to all this. I mean, everybody who’s been listening to the show knows that when we revealed the news, and we’ve shared a lot on other people’s podcasts as well.

But I think the news has started to get out there so much now that I’ve been getting DMs from people who I’ve ha- I haven’t made contact with in, in years, some over a decade, who heard the news and reached out and were like, “Hey, Pat, I haven’t chatted with you in a while, but I heard about the sale. Just wanted to wish you congrats.”

And that was really cool to see from people who, you know, I haven’t talked to in a very long time. But there were a lot of DMs from people who knew about this process before it was announced and all the things and where I’m going. They’re involved and know where I’m, what I’m trying to do in the Pokémon space and were nervous kind of with me.

And it was nothing but flowers for both of us, uh, or all three of us, in fact, for how we’ve handled this. The transition from me as owner to, you know, as, like, front-facing, to you, Liz, and setting you up for success. And I think the most special messages that have come through were actually from SPI community members who reached out just to congratulate both of us and to say that I couldn’t have found a better person.

That was the most important thing to me, was to make sure everybody was set up for success. So to see people who are literally affected by this decision see that this is a bright future for SPI probably made me the most happy of all.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah, that was something that was really… I mean, it was something I hoped for, but I didn’t expect, and Matt can attest to that.

I was having him, ’cause he’s the numbers guy, right? So I was having him run, like, insane numbers. Like, what if everybody leaves? Like, what, like worst case scenario stuff. So it wa- it was a pleasant surprise, and it was great to see, you know, Matt, Pat, and I, we put so much work in, you know, five months before, five months after.

Like, this has been almost a year of work. So it’s like, okay, we, we did it, boy. I think I even texted him. I was like, “We did it, boys.” Like, this is great. We did it. So yeah, Matt, what was the reception like for you?

Matt Gartland: It was a multilayered proud father moment of just, like, pride and gratitude and maybe a little bit of sadness.

I haven’t had kids, like, go off to college yet, but I imagine it was sort of like that, right? Which is like, there’s this special thing that you’ve played a very critical role in helping to nurture and build and get through difficulties and celebrate the wins along the way also. And now here’s this moment where it’s like it’s leaving the nest, right?

And it has this, like, much now larger opportunity to flourish, you know, with you and the future and the new ideas and the team that’s involved. And yeah, it was just, like, all of those things kinda wrapped up into this, like, really big proud father moment.

Liz Wilcox: Aw, that’s so cool. Yeah. So we had a question from Tom in our community, InboxTom.com.

He’s awesome. He helps with deliverability. But he said, you know, it seems like you, Matt, you, Pat, like you guys have always been making the right decisions at the right time, and this was the biggest decision of them all, picking the next person to take this and run with it, so to speak. So how are you guys always making these big decisions and seemingly getting it right?

Pat Flynn: Hmm.

Liz Wilcox: No pressure.

Pat Flynn: I’d love to pass that to you, Matt, because- Yeah. … a lot of it was guided by you. I mean, the decisions being Matt and I teaming up, right, and then acquiring Winning Edits, and then moving to community and then, you know, getting certain team members. These were all big decisions that I couldn’t have made on my own.

So Matt, I’d love to hear your perspective on how do you know to make those moves? How do you know where the puck might be going, for example?

Matt Gartland: Yeah. Well, thank you, buddy. I don’t get all the decisions right, and it wasn’t like an all me thing. You know, one perspective, Pat, we talked about this, I think in, in the, uh, episode that we recorded together, is just optionality.

Like as, as entrepreneurs, like to the degree that you can create more than one possible outcome, right? As you look across this chessboard of entrepreneurship, I, I think entrepreneurship is essentially just a strategy game all the time. It’s like, okay, how, how can I make certain moves such that then I have maybe one or two moves in the future and I’m not like boxed in?

And a big part of that is partnerships for me. You know, throughout my entire entrepreneurial career, I’ve had a lot of different partners, either formal business partners like Pat or strategic channel partners to help with growth. In a prior venture that was an ecommerce, uh, services startup, we had a really strategic partnership with Shopify, and we got a lot of, you know, really warm referrals in, in, in business generation, in business development, you know, from Shopify.

So like I’ve always kind of leaned into like really thoughtful alliances and relationships. So like when Pat and I teamed up, you know, that came after, you know, seven years of the winning agency that, that Pat mentioned. I’ve worked with a lot of people and had other partners in that time. It kind of brings my, uh, story around to another point, which is you just need experience.

You know, I didn’t pop the question to Pat, and he was like the first partner I’ve ever had, right? It’s like over time when you’re in, when you’re in the game long enough, not even just on partnerships, but any sort of a consequential business decision, like you just develop good instincts. And not that you’re right all the time, but like it just, it was right.

Like it just felt right really on both sides, Pat, you know, when we started talking about that in twenty eighteen, uh, and got ready to pull the trigger on that. So I’d say like it’s, you know, just re-reps. Get in there, you know, get experience, create optionality for yourself, and then be, be willing to push the envelope on, you know, what could be possible in terms of, you know, turning the corner on a new idea.

Pat Flynn: I think that last point is really important. A lot of people that we’ve seen in the space since two thousand and six to two thousand and eight are gone and, and left, and they didn’t keep their business going because they weren’t willing to even take a ri- a little bit of risk to see some more reward.

They maybe just continued the same path and didn’t try anything new because what worked before should work still. But that’s never true, or hardly ever, especially in the, uh, days of the internet. So one thing for me was like I am, I, I seemingly am much more able to or just willing to take a little bit of risk in order to see what happens.

And, and again, it doesn’t always go well, but that is less risky in my opinion than kind of just staying put. And I think that’s a part of it as well. So when you combine like that willingness and maybe that r- r- risk-taking with somebody who has had those reps and somebody that’s a little bit able to, like you, Matt, to assess things and maybe make sure that we’re putting our best cards in- into the bet, then, you know, we could see good things happen.

And I, I love that analogy ’cause we never know what is exactly going to happen, but we can at least stack the cards in our favor as much as possible. But, you know, you can’t win any pots if you’re just not placing any bets and you kinda just let the, uh, what do you call it, the big blinds just take your money the whole time and then nothing, and then you’re, you’re left with nothing.

Matt Gartland: Yes, spot on. M- massive emphasis. Like, the, the riskiest thing is not doing anything at all and just assuming that everything is gonna continue the way that it currently is.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah, I, I think the mark of any entrepreneur that’s gonna be successful is that willingness to take risks. You know, it was a risk for Matt and Pat to join up.

It was a risk for them to even get on a call with me ’cause, you know, the too long, didn’t read version of this is, you know, I asked them. You know, I was like, “Hey, what do, what do y’all think about this,” right? And, you know, it, it could’ve gone really sideways, which brings me to a question that we had from another member of our community, Jesse.

He says, “What was the one thing you were afraid of would happen to SPI after Liz took over?” I think I’ll go first. My thing was y’all would hate me. We would lose all the listeners and, you know, I will have wasted a lot of people’s time and a l- and a lot of my own money. So that was, that was my fear. What about you, Matt?

Matt Gartland: Okay, I’ll go first, and I will say this with love. Understand that going in. It was fear. Was that the word? Uh, like what was my fear? Was that you were going to be a remarkable, like, creator, storyteller, idea person, but maybe wouldn’t have the business chops, right, kinda underneath it. But at just as we got into the process, and as we ran a really mature process for six months, I just really developed an appreciation and an admiration for how wrong I was, or at least how maybe that fear was misplaced.

That like, “My, you have a really good business head on your shoulders, and you’re asking sharp questions about the nature of the business and the numbers and the dynamics of the team and the culture, and my opinion and Pat’s opinion on different marketplace dynamics, and like where are certain things heading in the industry and, you know, the relationships that we have.”

So I’m proud to say that, that my fear was misplaced there.

Liz Wilcox: Aw.

Pat Flynn: I remember getting questions from you, Liz, during this process, and then immediately sharing those questions with Matt, and then saying, “Liz is asking all the right questions right now.” And so that was definitely a good sign. My, my biggest fear by far was regret.

Regret selling this, letting it go, not because I could have turned it into something, but rather more because I will, would have let people down, and the general consensus is quite the opposite. I think the move has inspired a lot of people. It’s become sort of what maybe others could potentially even shoot for after having built a business and generating some passive income, and that is really reassuring in that, like, my biggest fear was hearing the mob come after me and saying, “How could you? You just sold out. How could you leave behind what you’ve started? How did, how could you leave me behind?” And it was, again, the opposite. “How incredible that you left us with somebody who could take us even further,” was the consensus. And that felt so, so good, and it’s crazy because a couple days after the announcement last week, I flew to Dallas to attend Card Party, the seventh version of our, or the seventh, uh, event that we have put on, and it was by far the biggest, most exciting, best event we’ve put on.

We’ve had, we had over 10,000 people there. It was absolutely flawless, and it really reassured me that, like, yes, this is exactly why I made this decision and how many more people I’ll still be able to help, while also knowing that SPI is gonna be taken care of and the people there are supported. I actually got a lot of feedback.

There were a couple people who were fans of SPI whose kids went to the event, and they went as well, who were very congrat- con- congratulatory and just happy for, for us, for all of us. So it was pretty cool. It w- like, the timing was pretty neat, actually, to have it work out that way.

Liz Wilcox: That’s so cool, and yeah, I kinda attest, so my sister, if you guys don’t know, you know that she was kinda the catalyst for all this ’cause she works for Pat part-time with his c- Card Parties, and she told me when she got home, she was like, “Oh, Pat just seems so happy” and, but also, like, emotional, if you can use that word. You know, like, really grounded in what is happening, like, very much in the present and aware of, like, you know, the blessing that this has been for all of us- Mm-hmm … including you listening, right? And so that felt really good to hear, for sure. For sure.

Pat Flynn: That’s so cool.

Liz Wilcox: It’s, it’s funny that you guys mentioned the questions and like, “Oh, she’s asking all the right questions,” ’cause I wrote down as Matt was talking, I felt so amateur.

You know, especially, like, if you guys listen to the episode with Matt and Pat, like, Matt is a numbers guy, and I could just tell the moment I met him, like, oh, this guy is a pro. This, this is a guy who’s a wheeler and a dealer in the best way. And I’m h- over here asking questions like, “So who do you serve?”

And you know, like, “What are your values?” And, “Do you have a mission statement?” And, you know, then Matt is also infamous for his Loom videos, and he’s sending me all these videos, and I’m like, oh my gosh, the numbers, you know? And not that they were super overwhelming, but you know, I watched those videos over and over to, like, truly understand and get a grasp on things, like, in, uh, in relation to the things that Pat and I were talking about as far as the audience goes and the potential for growth there.

And I just, I’ve, I was like, whoa, I am just winging it. So if you’ve ever been on a call or I think, um, former President Barack Obama says, you know, you might think you don’t belong at the table, but once you get to the table, you realize, you know, everybody is just people. You know, it’s like we’re, we’re all thinking the same thing.

How did I get here? And I better act right to stay here. That’s, that was kind of my experience with it, and it’s, yeah, it’s been so awesome to see this transition plan that we put in place To, you know, slowly introduce me and my brand and my way of doing things to the community. It’s, it’s been so great to see that actually stick.

And there was even, we had in the inbox, somebody wrote, and this is not anyone that I even recognized, right? ‘Cause I’ve been in the community five or six months now, I’m starting to recognize, you know, the superfans, so to speak. But it was, it was no one that I recognized. And they wrote, “I started to read this and I was two paragraphs in and I thought, ‘If he doesn’t tell me Liz Wilcox bought this, I’m out.'”

And I was like- Oh, really?

Pat Flynn: Wow. Yeah. That’s so cool.

Liz Wilcox: And, and then they went on to say like, “Oh, I’ve been loving her on the podcast, you know, I’m in the community,” whatever, whatever. And I was like, oh, like I literally relaxed. Mm-hmm. You know? Like my body. And it just feels so good to, to know that all those conversations Matt and Pat just mentioned were not for nothing, you know.

They were the right conversations to be happening. And, uh, some of the questions that I remember asking, well, the first question I asked was, “Pat, if you were to sell the business to the right owner, like, what would the future look like for, for SPI? What would you want it to be?” And I think we had an interview with somebody, I think maybe it was Jason Pfeiffer, and Pat said, “Oh, from there, you know, I, I was much more open to Liz.

That, that made a lot of sense to me. I knew she was on the right track.” So, you know, if you think you’re amateur, maybe you’re not. So k- keep going, folks. We have another awesome question if I can find it. Oh, Ron from our SPI community says, “Pat, if you could hop in the DeLorean and go back to ’08 right when you were starting and tell that version in 18 years SPI is going to be wildly successful. You’re gonna sell it to a lady named Liz Wilcox and go all in on a YouTube Pokémon business that you built from scratch with 2.4 million subscribers, what do you think that ’08 Pat would have said?”

Pat Flynn: Was this Ron Desi?

Liz Wilcox: ‘Twas.

Pat Flynn: Yes. Hi, Ron. Thank you. Um-

Matt Gartland: Loved Ron.

Pat Flynn: I love Ron. He’s great. He’s got an amazing business, and is doing some fun things in the, uh, Dungeons & Dragons space, actually, which is pretty cool.

I would have doubted all of that. Back in ’08, I was such a, I was such a person who didn’t believe I had what it took because I, uh, A, I didn’t know that any of this was possible, and B, I didn’t think even if it was, that I would be somebody who would be at that level. Um, I was just trying to survive back then, for lack of a better term, or for a great term, actually.

I just was wanting to, after my layoff, just, just put some money on the table for my family and I, and just, you know, I had moved back home with my parents, and I was trying to figure things out. So, you know, if I had gone back in time and I told my, my younger self, I, I would have d- just doubted all… Like, “No, that, that, that can’t be real.

And Pokemon? Like, come on. Like, there’s… I’m not even into Pokemon. That doesn’t make any sense. In order to get to that level with something, you have to have it for years, and you ha- you have to have a ton of experience.” And I think, again, what a l- a lot of people have told me after the sale is, like, how inspiring it was that I didn’t even know anything about Pokemon six years ago.

This was something I just started for fun with my kids that turned into this, you know, empire now, uh, and it’s helping so many people. And I think that just inspires anybody because it just means it’s never too late to find yourself or find a new path or to, you know, unlock something in your life that could bring you joy.

And, and I hope this, as I always do, continues to provide an example for people out there and inspiration for others. But no, I would have also said, “Where did you get this DeLorean? Because I’ve been looking for one.” That’d probably be the, uh, other thing I would say.

Liz Wilcox: Do you know Christopher Lloyd personally?

Like, where’d you get this?

Pat Flynn: I don’t- I love that … but my wife actually met him at a fan expo and got his autograph, which was cool, along with Michael J. Fox.

Liz Wilcox: Oh, that’s so cool. I love that.

Pat Flynn: And, and Biff in the same photo, which was pretty cool.

Liz Wilcox: Not Biff.

Matt Gartland: That’s so cool.

Liz Wilcox: Awesome. So going back to the acquisition, and, you know, we really made a point of talking about selling a personal brand, right? ‘Cause SPI, you know, is SPI, but it was really Pat Flynn focused for a long, long time. And Robert, one of our community members, said, “You know, this has really opened my eyes about the importance of making sure the brand can live beyond you.

Inspired me to change my personal brand from Robert Rodriguez Music to Film Scores Explored.” And maybe this, Matt will wanna take the lead on this. Like, how far in advance do you recommend that kind of change for creators? You know, he’s nowhere near SPI size, he says, but, you know, making that change feels almost freeing to him.

So what, what do you recommend from here for him and others?

Matt Gartland: I recommend that it, one, not be forced. It’s not the right path for everyone, but with some of the themes that it’s fun to kinda teach now, crash test dummy style, as we always have been. Now for this moment, if it’s something that is consistent with, like, a longer term vision that you have for the work that you’re doing and the people that you wanna serve, then I would start to move in that direction.

You don’t have to force it or rush it. If there’s a good moment to do it based on the time of year, a marketing campaign, stuff like that, to start, you know, using it as, as story, right? Like, why are you evolving, right, from a personal brand into, you know, something else? So I would lead with the story and make it authentic and, and leverage that.

That is in an authentic and helpful way for the sort of growth that you’re, you know, shooting for, you know, and an ability to further involve your audience and customers and, you know, whomever is sort of en-enrolled in, in that brand, right? To now be a part of this like, you know, next chapter story, right?

Or, or however that vision is expanding now underneath sort of this new banner. So I would start there. Don’t rush it. St- Lead with story and move it on a pacing that makes sense to you. But that said, don’t arbitrarily go slow. Like if you feel genuinely like this is a big part of the direction, then, you know, give yourself a deadline, right?

Give yourself an appropriate amount of urgency, again, without rushing it to try to find that balance, right? So like get it done within a year or get it done in the next six months. You know, and especially if you’re early, and we throw the pad maybe on this next layer, but if you’re still relatively early in the journey, it’s probably easier, right?

If I just think about some of the underlying fundamentals of a business and the things you’d want to do just to make sure that that’s right. Rolling it out to your audience. If the audience is smaller, usually that’s gonna be then a lower risk opportunity or a moment to do that, versus if you wait and the audience is a lot larger.

So yeah, I, I think about moving sooner, just don’t do it recklessly.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah. So I actually have a personal story about this. I sold my personal brand, and at first it was LizWilcox.com, which if you go there right now, it’s all very email marketing, online business. But I knew within about 18 months that it wasn’t my forever home.

I did not wanna talk about RVing for the rest of my life. And so I slowly moved the brand, like Matt said, and I, I changed the domain first. Hey, this is gonna be The Virtual Campground now. This is– Because it’s not about me, it’s about you, right? It, it’s, it’s about the audience. How can I help? You know, how can we create this community online of RVers?

And I stopped writing blog posts ’cause I was, I was a big blogger back in the day, and I just had guest blogs from then on out for years. I would feature people in the community on my email list. “Hey, do you have an RV? You wanna write a blog post? You wanna share some pictures?” I had a Facebook group. I would share pictures of their RVs, not mine, and slowly just remove myself.

Even my main course did not have my face in it. I actually hired my then husband to create the course ’cause I didn’t want my face in it because I knew I was gonna sell it. And even with all of that, the very first question that I was asked when I went through my acquisition was, “Well, Liz, you have such a big personality. How are we gonna take over your brand?” Like, as if I was Pat Flynn or something, right? And, um, I said, “Well, if you noticed,” because there were people on my email list that actually purchased it. I said, “Well, if you noticed, over the last two years, I’ve been slowly m- removing myself. Even, you know, the emails are very Liz forward, but they’re always talking about you.

They’re always featuring you.” You know, I had a live YouTube channel. What I was doing with that, I don’t know. I lived in a campground. If you’ve ever been in the woods, you can imagine my internet. But so you can imagine what the stream looked like. But I always had more than one guest every single time I went live, and again, it, it was never about me, and so I was able to sell it because of that.

So I agree with Matt wholeheartedly, like, go slow but be genuine about it. I genuinely, just like I’m, you know, taking over SPI, I really care about people, and I love, love, love community. Side note, do not start a membership if you don’t like people. I love people, and so it was super fun for me to transition.

It, it didn’t feel awkward or forced or just because I’m gonna sell, I’m doing this. It, it, it totally felt like the right move, sale or no sale. Pat, did you have something to add?

Pat Flynn: Yeah, I was just gonna say, I know a lot of brands that have a name as the domain that have no personality at all, and it doesn’t feel like the person.

And then I, I know a number of other brands that have the subject matter as the domain name but completely feel like the person And so it, m- it’s more than just about the domain name. It’s just how things are shared and presented and, and from which vantage point, and I think we did an amazing job starting in 2022 really starting to explore what would life be like for SPI without me?

And we weren’t even thinking about a sale. It was just more building to sell. If maybe we were to sell it or if something happened to me, you know, how could the brand and the content and the legacy live on? So we started to feature what was really important to us, which was the community, and the community having its own personality, the community having its own heartbeat, the community having its own people and, and, uh, highlights and features that people could really get behind and connect with.

But it is important to realize that people do connect with people. And so I think I remember when I first started in ’08, I tried to make all my websites look like it came from some corporate brand. I wanted the corporate logo, and I wanted it to feel professional ’cause that’s what websites were supposed to be back then.

But today, whether it’s a name or a company, I think having it have personality is important. And when you can connect with people who are there for the same reason, who share the same mission, who share the same values, well, then it is a lot easier f- to find somebody who could, in a way, replace you or take that baton and carry it forward because they share the same mission, the same values, just like you do for SPI, Liz, with me.

So that’s, again, what made it very easy, and it makes it not like you are replacing me, but rather you are taking what I’ve started and, and making it your own, but, but not starting from scratch either, which I know is, was important for you because part of the reason for getting SPI was to kind of jump ahead and fast-forward your goals and your numbers, which is a smart thing to do when it comes to business is you don’t always have to build everything from zero.

You could start with things that exist and then improve upon them, which you have done and did impr- uh, improve upon as soon as we got started, which was why we waited six months to tell people. We wanted people to know that you had what it took, and you definitely proved yourself.

Liz Wilcox: Well, thanks, my friend.

I think something that was unexpected for me, and to what Pat is saying, was when I announced to my audience, “Hey, I bought SPI,” you know, I just was like, “Oh, this is gonna be so epic.” But I did have more fear on my side of things than SPI, which I totally did not expect. I figured, you know, Pat has superfans, y’all.

He literally wrote the book right? And so I was just so, you know, I don’t know, laser focused on making sure that this audience over here was gonna be cool, that I just maybe inaccurately assumed everybody on my side would be like, “Oh, my gosh. This is great for everybody.” But when we did the town hall, there were a few people…

I mean, o- overwhelmingly majority, uh, “Oh, my gosh. This is awesome. This is epic.” But there were a few people- Mm-hmm … which I love and appreciate so much that were like, “Okay, Liz. What, what about us? What’s ha- what’s happening here?” And there was a lady that came on, ’cause y’all I am an open book, and if you ever come to a live call with me, everyone’s mic is…

You’re able to unmute yourself. I wanna hear from you. And so she said, “Well, Liz, I, I kind of just found you in the last few months, and something that I loved about you was your, is your personality. You know, you’re, you’re loud. You’re fun. You’re ’90s themed.” She says, “I’m looking at SmartPassiveIncome.com, and I don’t see any of that.”

Uh, and I said, I said, “Yeah. Well, you know, we’ve, we’ve had to slowly, you know, move me in.” And I said… But she said, “I’m, I’m worried that you’re gonna, you know, try to mold yourself to what that is over there, you know, and, and I won’t get to see what I’ve seen over here.” And I said, you know, I, I hadn’t thought about that ’cause yeah, I mean, we are different people.

We all have different… We’re superfans of different things. We talk differently. You know, we have, share the same values very, very much, but the way we deliver them is maybe a little different, and the way we present ourselves in the world is completely different, for sure. And I, I hadn’t really thought of that, and I said, I said, “Well, girl, let me just tell you, you couldn’t water me down in a rainstorm, so don’t you worry.

Like, Liz Wilcox, as you know her, is truly not going anywhere. And even if you…” I pointed her to this podcast. I said, “You know, I’ve been doing my Ask Liz episodes. I’ve been co-hosting with Pat. You know, there’s… My personality is there. I cannot help myself but be who I am.” And I was so appreciative that she…

That was her fear. You know, it wasn’t like, oh, what’s gonna happen to my membership? What’s gonna happen, you know, to the pricing? What’s… It was, “Oh my gosh, Liz, don’t lose yourself.” So that was a really actually, like, amazing feedback, and it, it even reminded me of, like, oh yes, okay, I do ‘Cause I’m, right now I’ve been in this Pat Flynn world, and it’s like, you know, I’ve been worried about Pat Flynn superfans and this, and it was like, oh yeah, I, I have some standing power, too, and there are things that I should bring out more for SPI for them to really see me and, you know, feel safe to be themselves, too.

So that was some of the, the coolest feedback. And I wanna kind of do, like, some rapid fire, fire, ’cause we got some really, like, nosy questions, which I love ’cause y’all, I’m, I’m transparent because I’m nosy. Because I wanna know everything about your business. Mm-hmm. I’m willing to share everything about mine.

So people were asking, you know, what was some of, like, the worst feedback and the best feedback that we got on the SPI side. Matt’s face if I don’t know if we’re gonna publish this video, but Matt’s like, “Do you really wanna say that?” But the worst feedback actually wasn’t bad at all. It was insane. We got one refund ask, and that was it.

And it’s- Wow … it’s been, yeah, it’s been about eight days, so I mean, they might come rolling in, but in the first eight days of this announcement, we’ve only asked, had one refund request from someone that purchased the community back in April, which is kind of funny to me ’cause they bought from my campaign.

And they’ve been in the membership for, I don’t know, what, five months now, and they said, “Hey, I paid for a year. You know, I really did buy this because I am a huge s- superfan of Pat and I like to learn from his perspective. Um, and now that I know that Liz is the owner, she’s not the one for me.” And that was it.

It was, it was very, like- That’s interesting … cut and dry. And you know, of course we refunded them right away, no questions asked. But that truly has been the most vocal, “Hey, this isn’t for me. I’m out,” type of thing. And again, I ran… Matt can tell you, I think I was like, “What if we lost 20% of people immediately? Run those numbers.” So it’s, it’s been amazing to only have one person. And then the best feedback was from some of those people in the community that I thought might say those things, that are really active, have, you know, original, like, founding members, been around since, you know, paying customers since 2019, 2020.

And I remember going to the town hall with Pat and Matt, and Pat announcing, and there were a few people that weren’t on camera that I really wanted to see their faces, to get their real gut reaction so I could, you know, kind of play recall on it, like, if I… Do I need to DM them? Do I need to… You know, what do I need to do for them?

And there was… Nobody was on camera, of course, and so I couldn’t gauge anyone’s impressions. And I got an actual voice memo on Facebook from one of these members, and she said “You know, Liz, I, I, you were right. I was a little skeptical, but I’ve been listening to all the interviews that have been released this week, and you’ve convinced me. Pat has convinced me you are the right next step, and I’m super excited to grow with you. I can’t wait to stay on and see what we do together.” Which wa- is exactly the type of thing I say all the time, and I want, and I’m so jazzed about, and it, it literally made me tear up. I was like, “Okay Maybe this was the right decision.” You know, like Pat and Matt, they d- they got it right. Okay. ‘Cause of course I have my own insecurities and like, oh gosh, sometimes I put my foot in my mouth, and I just be asking for things I’m not ready for, and that made me feel so good and so assured. So that was the best and the worst. I know y- I’ve gotten a lot of questions about that of like, “Are people actually excited about this, Liz?”

On my side of things, so that feels really, really good.

Pat Flynn: I haven’t heard anything terrible or negative at all. If anything, just maybe a couple people who were very similar to the person who left a refund, just more like, “Oh, the… I don’t think this next era of SPI is for me. I’m gonna probably bow out.” And whether they sort of let their membership expire or was that person who refunded, that’s, that’s fair and okay, I think.

But I think that you’re gonna see, Liz, a lot of people who come in because of you, um, who will then thrive under your, under your leadership there. So I’m, I’m very excited to see that, and that’s, that’s the most kind of positive stuff I’ve heard. It’s just, you know, there, there’s been a lot of congrats and like, you know, Pat, like, “Well done, Pat.”

Pat this, Pat this. But my favorite comments are the ones about you, Liz, because I think that, again, validates that we found the right person, and, and Matt and I, we have had offers in the past with people who we just knew were not gonna be a good fit at all, and this was an obvious choice for us when it came across our table.

So again, we’re very happy, super stoked, and my vision is that a year from now, there’ll be members who are in currently who go, “Pat, like you were right. I mean, this, this thing is thriving. My business is thriving. The community’s thriving, and we’re all thriving.” I mean, that’s, that’s kinda what we want.

Matt Gartland: So yeah.

Liz Wilcox: Awesome.

Matt Gartland: Just a big ditto from me. Have heard nothing but- Mm-hmm … honestly good, good stuff. Maybe as just another layer though, you know, some of the partners that we’ve had for a long, long time, uh, you guys recorded with Nathan Barry. That podcast just dropped just the other day. So thinking about Nathan, thinking about like Sid and Andy from Circle, thinking about, you know, Pat, some, some of the other like OG-ers, right, that we’ve had kind of in our corner.

Uh, Brendan Dunn followed up with me. He heard the news, uh, our friend at Right Message. Cool. Just saying like, like, yes, congrats, but, but in different ways, just sort of like we’re leading by example again, right? Like, like this is- Mm … another exciting thing to kinda share and again dissect and kinda teach against, right?

Because it’s maybe not gonna be everyone’s destination, but there’s so much to now, like, learn from this again, and it’s just so consistent with, like, what SPI has always stood for back when you first created it. So, like, to hear that from some of those folks that have seen the evolutions of this thing, you know, for so long has been m- really meaningful to me.

Liz Wilcox: That’s a perfect way to end because the last question is like, “Liz, what, what now?” And the answer is, I don’t know. I really need your help, you listening, the people on the email list, the people in the community, the people following on social media. Just like I mentioned in the episode with Pat, like, I really wanna take things back to the roots to get to the future.

And SPI is always and will always be about what you need as the listener, as the person trying to build their business. And so just expect a lot of surveys because I want you to shape the future of SPI, and I think that’s why Pat and Matt, you know, chose me as the next person to carry the baton. I know that I can’t do this without you.

I know that I can’t… We can’t let this legacy go on without you. You know, you know better than I do, and I cannot wait to create something amazing with you so we can go back to Pat and Matt and say, “We did it, boys.” So thanks so much, guys.

Pat Flynn: Thank you, Liz, and congrats.

Matt Gartland: Thank you, Liz, and thanks everyone for, yeah, leaving questions and comments.