AP 0439: Why Are Meetups Important?

AskPat 439 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What's up everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 439 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. We have a great question from Thomas.

But before we get to Thomas's question I do what to thank today's sponsor, FreshBooks.com, which is a tool that you should all be using to help you manage your online business finances. They serve over three million other small business owners, including myself, with helping us manage our business finances, helping us keep it all organized, from the income to the expenses. They even have a great invoicing system which allow you to professionally get paid, you know, to bill your clients, your students, your coaching students, your companies that you work for and freelance with, all those sorts of things. It just makes those invoices really super slick and easy to use, so that you can get paid much faster and quicker so you can do whatever it is you need to do to grow your business. So if you want to check it out for thirty days for free, head on over to GetFreshBooks.com and enter “Ask Pat” in the “How Did You Hear About Us?” section. Again that's GetFreshBooks.com, enter “Ask Pat.”

Alright, here's today's question from Thomas.

Thomas: Hey Pat. So I saw one of your posts in regards to meeting up with some people in SD when you first got started with your online ventures. Now, I'm a kid in Irvine, 22 years old, and I was just wondering if you do any of those meetups. It would be great to talk to someone like yourself in person to kind of get a head start on my online ventures. So, it'd be great if you can let me know if you'd be willing to do something like that. Being that you're in Irvine, if you're still in Irvine. Alright, Pat. Thank you.

Pat Flynn: Hey, Thomas. Thank you so much for this question. The reason I wanted to answer this here today is because this prompts another thought about these meetups, and I wanted to focus on why these meetups are so important. So, first of all to answer your question Thomas, do I still do meetups? Yes. I do, although I haven't done them in a while. But, next year . . . This is something that I'm thinking of doing now that the kids are a little bit older. They're going to be going to school, both of them, and that sort of thing. I'm thinking of making it a regular thing, even just once a month somewhere in San Diego where I could invite as many people as possible, or maybe a limited number of people. We'll see. I haven't gone through the details in my head yet. But, I would love to set up meetings, or meetups with people where we can gather and get together and just talk, and have people focus on each other, meet each other as well, and network and that sort of thing. And I think I have a unique position in this space where I can make this happen quite easily.

Now, going back to why these are important. It's obvious why it's important to meet other people, because you can learn from them, you can help them out as well. But you never know. That next person that you meet, no matter where it's at, it might be that thing you need, or that connection you need to make massive progress in your business and growth in your business. Now, one of the things that I always talk about are these meetings that I've had when I first started my own online business. I specifically remember going to Panera Bread in Mira Mesa, which is a place that I lived in here in San Diego back in 2008. I had joined an online community and this community was setting up a little meeting in San Diego, California. This is Jeremy and Jason from Internet Business Mastery. Jeremy was there, he had just recently moved to San Diego. He doesn't live there anymore, but when he did he had wanted to meet people and just said, “Hey, anybody who's in and around the San Diego area, let's just gather at this Panera Bread at this time, on this day. We'll meet and talk and just mastermind.” I didn't even know what that meant.

I arrived on that day, and I was scared as heck because I just didn't know what to expect. I remember walking up to the group. They were already there, and I was a little bit late because I was just nervous and just left the house late. My heart was beating. I was so in awe of these people who were already very successful in their online businesses. We went around the circle and we each talked about what we were doing, what we did, what we needed help with. When it was my turn, this was at a point where I literally did not even have my very first online product yet. So, I went and I said, “I have this website. It helps people pass this exam in the architecture industry. I was recently let go, and this is what I'm trying to do. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm getting some good traffic to my website.” And then somebody asked, I think his name was Rob. He was like, “Pat, how much website traffic are you getting?” And I said, “Well, about five to seven thousand.” And they were like, “Wow, that's really good for a month. You should really be able to do something with that.” And I said, “No, that's five to seven thousand per day.” And that's where everybody stopped moving and looked at me and said, “What? Let's help this guy out.” They completely helped me and revolutionized my thoughts about what was possible. And that's where the idea for the ebook came out from, and how to sell it online. And that changed the course of my life.

So, I've experienced myself what can happen as a result of joining and meeting people. And yes, I was an introvert and I still am. But now, whenever I go to conferences, I'm the first one to talk to people because I don't even give myself three seconds to just psyche myself out. I want to meet and talk to as many people as possible. Because every time something cool has happened in my business, it's always been a result of the other people that I've connected with right before that. Whether it's somebody referencing some product that I should get that educates me on something, or somebody who connects me with somebody who can help me out through a problem that I'm going through, or somebody who shows me somebody who has already been successful with something I'm working on and deep inside right now. So yeah, these meetups are super important.

So Thomas, thank you for spurring this question because I am wanting to do this more. Not just for myself, but I feel like I'm in a unique position where I can create these moments for people. Moments like what happened for me in the past. I feel like I can do this for you and for everybody else out there. So if I had, for example, a regular Wednesday . . . You know, maybe it's like the first Wednesday of every month in 2016 . . . Again, I haven't set this in place yet, so don't think it's going to happen yet, or that that's a particular date. I'm just thinking out loud. Every first Wednesday of the month we meet at this place, this is . . . I don't know if it would cost anything or not, probably not. I don't know. We might need to rent out the space or get food or something, I don't know. We'll see. But if it's a regular, once a month type of thing, I think a lot of people would be interested. It would be a cool way for people to meet each other and for me to meet my audience. I would be able to get a lot of great feedback for things I'm doing as well. I could just present certain things . . . We'll have little mastermind. I think that would be cool.

So if you are interested in that, Thomas and everybody else listening, use the hashtag #AskPat439 on Twitter to let me know. If you don't have Twitter, that's okay. But for those of you who do, let me know. Would a regular . . . Maybe it's once a month, once every two months. I don't know. If it's something on a schedule where you knew that you could come to San Diego at whenever time and you just knew that opportunity was there, would that something you feel would be useful for you. Is that something you would want to do. Let me know. #AskPat439 on Twitter, and let me know what you think. I'm very curious. I'm always trying to find new ways to provide value to you and this is something that has come up. I do enjoy doing these meetings and yeah, let me know.

So, Thomas, thank you so much for this question and for starting this discussion. I appreciate it. We're going to send you an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show. For everybody else out there, if you have a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com. You can ask right there on that page. Just hit the record button and ask away.

I also want to thank FreshBooks.com for being an amazing company that sponsors this show. They just make it so easy for all of us to manage our business finances. They serve over 3 million small businesses. They make it super easy to keep track of income expenses. They make it really, really convenient for invoicing as well and they can help you out too. So, if you want to get a 30-day free trial of FreshBooks, just head on over to GetFreshBooks.com and enter “AskPat” in the “How Did You Hear About Us?” section. Again, that's GetFreshBooks.com, enter “AskPat.”

And finally, here's a quote from one of my all-time favorite quoters, or people who have said things. This is Henry Ford, and he said, “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” Boom.

The boom was me, not Henry Ford. Anyway, thank you guys so much. I appreciate you. If you have a moment to hook me up with a review on iTunes, that would help out so, so much. I appreciate it and I wish you all the best. Cheers, take care, and I'll see you next week in the next episode of AskPat. Bye.