SPI 945: I Sold SPI. The New Era Starts Now.

SPI 945: I Sold SPI. The New Era Starts Now.

Pat Flynn: I’m nervous about this one.

Liz Wilcox: I am too, honestly.

Pat Flynn: But excited.

Liz Wilcox: Yes.

Pat Flynn: Um.

Liz Wilcox: Woo.

Pat Flynn: Growth always happens on the outside of one’s comfort zone, right? And I’m going to announce the biggest thing that’s kind of maybe ever happened in my life.

Liz Wilcox: Oh, wow. And my biggest thing- Yeah … for sure, yeah.

Pat Flynn: So a lot of you might know that Liz, our community director and CEO of Smart Passive Income, has been with us for several months now, and has done incredible things to radically change how the momentum is happening in, inside of the community and the brand.

I mean, we’ve doubled the size of the membership since you’ve come on. You’ve done so amazing. And a lot of people have been asking me, like, “Hey, Pat, like, where are you taking this?”

Liz Wilcox: Yeah.

Pat Flynn: And, um, Liz is gonna take it from here, actually, ’cause I just sold the company.

Liz Wilcox: To me.

Pat Flynn: To Liz.

Liz Wilcox: It’s crazy.

Pat Flynn: So we’re here to talk about that.

This is a big deal because SPI is 18 years old.

Liz Wilcox: Wow.

Pat Flynn: You know, going to college now. My baby of 18 is-

Liz Wilcox: It’s so perfect,

Pat Flynn: Yeah … an adult now, and man, there’s a lot to unpack here. But the reason I’m nervous and the reason this is hard is because this is something that has been a part of me for so long, and I care so deeply about the people that we’ve served, the people in our community, the, the customers, and the audience, and the subscribers.

I mean, there’s a lot to this story, right? It didn’t just happen overnight. And of course, I do wanna talk about what happens next for, for you and for SPI. I’m not leaving entirely. Like, I’m still on as advisor, and I’ll be popping into the podcast every once in a while.

Liz Wilcox: Oh, we got him, y’all. We got him.

Pat Flynn: But I have very big plans and goals on my end, and for a while I felt like I was sort of straddling two ladders.

I’ve talked about this before, in fact. When I got laid off in 2008 and started Smart Passive Income and started my architecture business online, I was still straddling the ladder of who I was as an architect. I was kind of trying to still do both at the same time, and I eventually learned that in order to climb a ladder, I had to let go of the other.

So I’ve been doing that for the last few years now, especially with Deep Pocket Monster and the Pokemon stuff really taking off, and I’m seeing where that ladder can take me now.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah.

Pat Flynn: And I’ve always been holding on to the ladder of SPI ’cause I care about it so much, and I love it, and it’s gotten me to where I’m at now, and I… and, and it’s changed my life. And, you know, I’m, I’m ready to, to let go, and it’s hard, and it’s exciting. And again, I’ll talk about some of the plans, but I’m just so thankful for you, Liz, because this is… You coming in means that it’s going to continue to do what I’ve built it to do ’cause you have that same mission in life that I had with helping the entrepreneur find their thing, generate revenue, and change their own lives.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah. So Pat just mentioned, oh, I’m nervous. You know, I, I love this entity. I love SPI. I love my people, and I’m nervous, too, because I, I feel the same way. It’s… This is very, and not in a bad way, but weighted, right? This is a Legacy. These are big shoes to fill, you guys. You know? And I, I wanna do right by Pat, but by you listening, you watching, you know, I wanna make sure, you know, I’m not Pat, of course, right?

I look different, I sound different, I, you know, say different things, but the mission is what really connected us, and I know we’re gonna go really deep into that, of how this all came about. But the mission of, you know, around here we’re not trying to make a killing, we’re just trying to make a living. You know, the same way when Pat lost his job, and he’s like, “Huh, you know, what can I do? I’ve gotta support myself. I’ve gotta support April. You know, what can I do?” And I know there’s hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of you listening, thinking the same thing, and that is not something I take lightly. So I’m nervous, too, and the last six months of my life, I, I feel like I’m a different person, you know?

This has been going on since April, and the person that I was in March 2026 is not the person talking to you today, and I’ve had to grow so much so quickly. But like Pat, I just, I love this mission so much. I love this audience so much, and I’m really excited for the new era of SPI.

Pat Flynn: I am, too. Honestly, since you’ve come on, it’s had a renewed energy.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah.

Pat Flynn: You know, Liz mentioned April. That’s when the deal happened, six months ago, and my big worry with Liz coming on was if I were to share this news back in April, people would go, “Oh, well, here we go. It’s like it’s, here’s the downfall of SPI. Pat’s no longer a part of it. It’s gonna change.” Like, you would have no idea what would happen because Liz had just come on.

Liz Wilcox: Right.

Pat Flynn: But we can now say with proof that the community has been thriving more than it ever has since you’ve come on in April. It’s gotten much better because of Liz already. And so if you’ve been in the community and you’ve felt that renewed energy, that is largely due to Liz coming on and having extreme focus into helping all of you succeed and putting her energy and her expertise and her not just email expertise, but expertise in growing community and connecting people together.

She wants to lean into that even more. And I’ve been feeling this pull from the Pokemon side of things to do bigger and really take that to levels that I didn’t even think was possible. Not because all I want to do is play with Pokemon all day. Right. But because of the impact that I’m seeing over there, the lives that are being changed as a result of the content that we’re creating, the storytelling that we’re doing, and just the reach that we have there is reaching parts of the world that I never thought I’d have an effect on, especially for kids.

I’ve always wanted to. Many of you know that I’ve always wanted to try to do something to help kids. I tried to do this in the world of education, and there was so much red tape and government- Hmm … and policy and politics involved with that. It was, like, so difficult. Yeah. I, I couldn’t make any dent in, in reaching kids and changing curriculum and bringing business curriculum into the world of elementary schools and high schools.

It’s almost impossible. Yet, here I am with Pokemon, able to directly speak to and talk to kids and their families and help them through tough times in their life and bring people together in a community, and it really feels like the young days of SPI over there.

Liz Wilcox: That’s so cool.

Pat Flynn: It’s so crazy, the joy that I have there.

Not that I disliked or didn’t feel joy with SPI-

Liz Wilcox: Right …

Pat Flynn: but it’s just a whole nother level that is, that is calling me. And I’ve mentioned this before. It’s like people have said that like, “Oh, Pat, like you’re the MrBeast over there. Your, your, your reach is so big and you’re,” you know, uh, it’s like I don’t wanna be the next MrBeast.

I wanna be… This is the big thing, and this is the first time I’m kind of saying this here. I wanna be the next Mr. Rogers. I feel a calling. Mr. Rogers was very inspiring to me when I grew up. I watched him every day. He would teach me life lessons. He would imagine with me. He would just calmly talk about the world in ways that nobody else was talking about, and that is the kind of impact I’m seeing that I’m making with people and their families, over at Deep Pocket Monster, and I, I’m just, I have this calling. I’ve had this calling for a while, but I didn’t wanna just abandon SPI and the people there. In order for me to do this, it needed to be done right with the right person. ‘Cause truthfully, I had been getting offers for SPI for quite a bit, for years now.

Ever since, like, COVID and the community, and the recurring revenue that happens with having a community, I’ve had a lot of business owners approach me and want to buy SPI. One of them was a creator, and it just wasn’t a great fit. Two other offers I got were for eight figures.

Liz Wilcox: Sorry, Pat. No. JK, JK.

Pat Flynn: Um, we’re, we’re not gonna get into specific numbers of the deal or anything like that here, but it, it, it wasn’t an eight-figure deal.

Liz Wilcox: That’s a lot of money. That’s a lot of money.

Pat Flynn: Yes. Yeah.

But they were offers from venture capitalists who wanted to come in and basically just tear it apart and use you as a credit card because they knew, you know, they would get the subscriber lists and that there was this recurring rev- They, they were going to completely upend everything that I’ve built, and it was a easy no because it wasn’t about the money.

I wanted to make sure that you guys were taken care of, that the team was taken care of. And it just so happened that your sister, Patricia- … had a part in this because Patricia started helping me on the Card Party side of things. Card Party is a live event that I put on. We just hosted one in San Diego for 9,500 people.

I mean, this is the scale at which I’m talking about. And Patricia was there supporting with a lot of the work that I was doing in the back office. And I guess you guys had randomly talked about what it would be like to purchase SPI just randomly, right? Like, how did that even go down?

Liz Wilcox: Yeah. Yeah. So my sister, obviously she’s my sister, we talk all the time, and she works for me as well on my personal brand side.

And she was just basically saying the two ladder story. You know, “Pat, I see him, you know, he’s so jazzed about these card parties, but he looks tired.” And I said, “Yeah, well, number one, almost 10,000 people, that’s exhausting, you know, by the end, right? It’s energizing, but tiring.” I said, “And he’s got SPI, you know? He’s got a podcast. He has YouTube. He has this. He has that.” And as I was listing all these things that you were doing, I, I stopped and I said, “Well, you know what? I wonder if Pat would ever sell SPI. And my sister said, “I, I don’t know.” I said, “Well, he should sell it to me.” That light bulb went off because of what Pat was just saying about the impact he’s making, and how much that lights him up, and how he wants to follow that road as deep as it can go.

I love creators for that reason. I want you to make an impact. I want you to have those stories of, “Oh, so and so said this changed their life. So and so said, you know, they finally got their marriage back together,” or whatever your thing is, right? Like, those stories light me up, and to know that I’m a small part of that is awesome.

And so when I was thinking about Smart Passive Income, I was thinking, again, the same as Pat, like what a greater impact I could have, right? If Pat is struggling with these two ladders, bro, I’ll take one. You know, like let me help you. And Pat and I had gotten semi-close through podcast interviews, Craft and Commerce, you know, things like that, and so I was like, “Yes, I think this would be a perfect solution for the both of us.”

And Patricia just ended up, the next Card Party, “Hey, man, you remember, you know Liz. Like, what do you think?”

Pat Flynn: I mean, I was just like, wait, I’ve had offers before, but this actually sounds like it could potentially work. I wasn’t, like, looking to sell-

Liz Wilcox: Right …

Pat Flynn: Either, but the idea that I could hand the baton to somebody who could take this and put renewed life into it, bring some new knowledge and, and new examples.

I mean, you generate passive income yourself. You’ve done, been doing this for years. You’ve done it in different ways that, than I have, but same thing. We’ve built businesses for ourselves. You’re not just a random person coming in.

Liz Wilcox: Right.

Pat Flynn: And you wanna lean into that even more. Let’s get b- let’s get back into the income part of all this for people, and I love that.

And when we’ve gotten to know each other, it just felt so right, and that I could hand the baton off. I could go and lean into the things that are calling me. I mean, I just invested three million dollars into a building for- What? … the Pokemon side of things. Yes. I mean, uh, th- there’s a, there’s a mortgage for it, but-

Liz Wilcox: Sure.

Pat Flynn: I am going deep into the world of storytelling and learning about filmmaking, and I wanna make movies, and I wanna go big. And, and people like Walt Disney are inspiring in terms of how the little components of all the things he ha- that he has, has created this empire, not because of the revenue that that could generate.

That’s … Like, I’m fine there.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah.

Pat Flynn: It’s the impact that I know I could make, that if I were to just stay with SPI, I would not be able to have. And as much of an impact as I made with SPI, and I know that I, I’ve– even here at Craft and Commerce, people are like, “Pat, you are the reason why I’m here. You are the reason why this happened.”

That’s what is making this so hard. But I also know that I’m not leaving nothing behind. A lot of my DNA is still going to be in SPI through the Superfans System, through the courses, and through the community. And I know there’s gonna be some people who watch or listen to this and say, “Okay, well, I’m here for Pat, so I’m not gonna be here anymore.” And that’s completely understandable.

But there’s also been a number of people who, since Liz has, has come on, say, “Liz is the best thing that’s ever happened to SPI.”

Liz Wilcox: Oh, wow.

Pat Flynn: Yes.

Liz Wilcox: That’s so sweet.

Pat Flynn: I mean, it’s, and it makes me feel good too, because I know I found the right person. So this podcast is not a podcast to convince you to stay. This podcast isn’t a podcast to tell you that I’m leaving and I’ll never see you again.

It’s that I have big plans, but I’m not leaving you behind, because I’m leaving you with somebody who’s going to take care of you and probably do a better job than I could have with my divided attention. I mean, there were some people who I spoke to about this, people in my mastermind group and other friends and colleagues, who when I shared the sale-

Liz Wilcox: Yeah.

Pat Flynn: They’re like, “Oh yeah, we knew this was coming. Like, it would… We knew it was eventually gonna happen.” Sure. You could see it even in my energy and where, you know, all the case studies and my emails and everything I talk about use Deep Pocket Monster as the example.

Liz Wilcox: Right. Pokémon, Pokémon, Pokémon. Yeah.

Pat Flynn: But I mean, it is an example of everything that I wrote about in my book Superfans, like to a T, from building that brand culture to doing live events to, you know, connecting with the audience to…

I mean, I have superfans now in the Pokémon space, and I’m getting recognized in public now for, for it more than anything.

Liz Wilcox: Yes. We went to dinner a couple months ago, and he got recognized, and it was super cool.

Pat Flynn: It’s, it’s everywhere now. And, and again, I’m not… It’s hard because I think on the surface people can go, oh, like Pat’s just kind of following his, where his ego gets stroked.

Liz Wilcox: I can’t imagine. Sorry.

Pat Flynn: But no, no. I… It’s, again, I have this calling, and I am so grateful that SPI has helped me. You know, so many things led to… There were levels to get to SPI, right? My architecture stuff and the Niche Site Duel, and then the community and the books and everything, and there’s been so much support, and that’s what’s made this hard is on one hand, it’s like I feel like I’m abandoning the people who’ve gotten me to where I’m at now to be able to unlock these new things for me, which I think is why th- this is a very unique situation.

‘Cause even in, in some of my conversations with friends, they’re like, “It’s so rare that you find somebody who can take that baton from you and still keep your legacy going.” Right? Usually something gets torn apart, or it just gets sold for scraps and that, and that kind of thing, which is what the offers were for before.

But this is why this is perfect. And you know, yes, I could have made more money probably selling it, but it, it, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep at night.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah. And I think it goes back to what you said, oh, this is my next big calling. And even, you know, on the phone with Patricia, I’ve really learned, especially in entrepreneurship and you listening and watching You’ll learn this too as you go, to really learn how to listen to that calling and know, you know, when it’s fear and when it’s the right next move.

And so even talking to Patricia, you know, to be honest with you, I’ve always loved Smart Passive Income, but I haven’t been, like, one of those loyal superfans. You know, I’m probably more of the casual or active audience. But the one thing that kept drawing me back over and over is the mission. You know, we wanna help people go from idea to income, are the values.

You know, we give a hoot, right? And I always say, “No one can out-care me when it comes to teaching creators how to make a living online.” And I mean, the, it’s in the name, Smart Passive Income, and dang it, y’all, I spent 10 years learning how to make smart passive income, so when I said, “Oh yeah, let, let me buy SPI,” I was only working a couple hours a week.

I had the time, but I was ready for that next thing. Like Pat said, I was ready to lean further into that calling. You know, at my personal brand, you know, I was only working with so many people, and I knew the, the impact that I could make. I knew all the blood, sweat, and tears that I’ve done to actually make smart passive income, and I wanna share that with people.

The same way Pat’s like, “You know, I wanna be the next Mr. Rogers , I’m like, “I wanna be the next Pat Flynn. I want to help a lot of people, because I know what it takes. I’ve done it. I am you. I am the audience.” I’ve listened to the podcast. I’ve watched the videos. I’ve taken courses. I’ve trialed and errored my way all the way to success, and now I look at leadership as I go first.

Okay, I went first. Now I wanna come all the way back and get behind you and push you towards smart passive income, push you towards those goals you have. And so yeah, when I heard, you know, Pat was struggling with the two, again, I knew, like his other friends, like yeah, of course he wants to see where Deep Pocket Monster can go, right?

He’s a creative guy. That’s why he’s been called the crash dummy of entrepreneurship. That’s why he’s been in business for 18 years, right? He’s always going to be a creator at heart But I’m an educator at heart. I love teaching creators. You know, I have a master’s degree in leadership. I have a background in education.

I consider myself an educator before a creator, and I just can’t wait to get behind everyone, and I’ve been doing it for six months and, you know, pushing people towards what they wanna do, and it’s so exciting.

Pat Flynn: The way you’ve come in and just really started to understand who the community was is so impressive, and how you came in and started finding holes in, in the brand.

I mean, early on-

Liz Wilcox: Yeah …

Pat Flynn: Liz came on and was like, “Why aren’t you guys doing this?” Like, “Hey, I sent you an email, and nobody replied.” Like, that shouldn’t happen. And so, so to have you come in and, you know, a lot of times when you’re so involved in something for so long, you just can’t see the obvious things anymore, right?

You can’t read the label when you’re inside the bottle. And to have Liz come in with new eyes, new vision, new energy, again, has reignited the community in a way that’s, I mean, never … I don’t think we’ve had this much success with the community since it was launched.

Liz Wilcox: Wow.

Pat Flynn: And then you come in and then just kind of turn it into something incredible.

I almost feel like maybe in a way that I’ve, I’ve let people down for the last number of years because I haven’t given you my full attention, and this is the time that you need that full attention from somebody, and that just because my attention is somewhere else Liz is coming in to give that to you.

But at the same time, I mean, I still get emails from people who say, like, the community has been the best thing that’s ever happened to them, and the connections that they found there and the masterminds. I mean, my legacy is in there. And again, I’m not leaving forever. I’ll come back on the podcast. I’m gonna advise.

I’ll be there to help and support, and I know I’ve made a number of, of connections in the community that are not going to go away.

Liz Wilcox: Right.

Pat Flynn: But I have things that I hope that I can lead by example from in the Pokémon space, too, and I hope that you take those big risks on your end as well, those things that might feel tough and, but you kind of have to take those bold actions to get those bold results sometimes.

Liz Wilcox: Yes, and I love that you are continuing being a creator, and oh, I, I wanna take it to the next level. I wanna make films and go really deep into storytelling because y’all, we h- we need those case studies. W- I wanna bring you back and- Yeah … okay, how is that going, right? And like I just mentioned, you know, Pat’s always been the example.

“Hey, I’m gonna try this, see how it happens.” So it’s just super inspiring, and I think, yeah, you’ll always be a part of SPI, and this is your role now, right? Just being an example of what’s possible, and I love that so much.

Pat Flynn: Thank you. Thank you so much for that. Yeah, so I’m sure there’s gonna be a lot of questions, and of course, we’ve likely at the time that this episode comes out, have already made the announcement in the SPI Community, and I’m fielding questions there.

And I know that I’ve been getting already a lot of support from people, but I also know that this might disappoint others as well, but I promise you that I’ve left you in good hands. And I’m very proud of that, that we just- I mean, it was fate that our paths crossed in the way that they did. And thank you, Liz, because you’re allowing me to attempt to fulfill these bigger dreams that I’ve had that are only made possible from the kinds of things that, you know, SPI’s helped me get to.

So I’m, I’m lost for words right now. I don’t even know what to say exactly. This, this is a-

Liz Wilcox: He’s doing great, folks. Leave a five-star review on Apple now. Like and subscribe, all that.

Pat Flynn: Oh my gosh. I mean, with, with, with the building and, and the purchase there- Yeah … and the team and, and the stories that we’re doing, and I mean, just the I mean, there’s some incredible things happening over there. I can’t wait to share these things with you in more detail, and case studies from sponsorship deals that have been upwards of half a million dollars and things like that, to do this stuff that is helping and making an impact, the f- philanthropic work that we’re doing over there.

It’s just, it’s just like I can’t even fully describe the impact that that work is happening. And it just so happened to fall in my lap during COVID, right? Yeah. Because my kids and I got involved with Pokemon, and I have them to thank as well. And my son is 16, and my daughter’s 13 now, and they’re a part of that.

They’re in, in fact, employees of that company. They’re on the videos. They’re getting on live stages. And it’s just, man, it’s, 18 years is a long time.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah.

Pat Flynn: And a lot of people were like, “Whoa, h- how are you still doing this after 18 years?” And it’s ’cause I love it so much. And I still love it, but I have to do what my heart is asking me to do.

And I feel so good knowing that it’s not going away. SPI’s not going away.

Liz Wilcox: It’s not going anywhere, baby. I’m very excited for the future of SPI, but I wanna say, you know, Pat, congratulations. 18 years, that’s a big deal. And with all the ideas that you have and the deals that you’re getting and, you know, the building that you bought, like, I can see another 18 years and beyond this.

So, you know, here at SPI, we’re so excited to follow that journey. And I just, I mean, there’s just the biggest congratulations, man. It’s amazing what you’ve done and what you’ll do.

Pat Flynn: Thanks, Liz. I love you for that s- so much. Thank you. You know what’s crazy is because my son is 16, he’ll be off to college soon, and I’m gonna probably have very similar feelings, right?

Yeah. It’s like my baby, like- Going out into the world and, you know, doing his thing and SPI’s gonna do its thing now and my daughter soon after that. And, you know, it’s crazy timing-wise in my life. You know, I’m in my, you know, mid-40s now. Kids are gonna be gone. My wife and I will be empty nesters, April and I, which will enable me to go even further into this sort of vision that I have of who I wanna become and how I wanna make a even bigger impact in the world.

And with where storytelling is happening, the things that are happening in Hollywood right now being kind of dismantled by YouTubers, I mean, I am already working on things like scripts and other things like that for bigger projects too, and this is gonna help a lot. It’s gonna help me feel good about this next direction.

Liz Wilcox: It’s all really, really exciting, and I Feel, I don’t know, just super blessed to be a small part of you being able to do that.

Pat Flynn: You’re a huge part of it, Liz. Oh. You are a huge part of it. It’s just- And all of you. Yeah. I mean, you are all a re- This is possible because of, of, of a lot of you, so, uh, because of all of you.

In SPI, I mean, the things I’m doing in Deep Pocket Monster land are the things that I’ve done in SPI land, just on a bigger scale now.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah. It’s so, like, it’s just so fun to think about, right? And I think that’s something I wanna bring to SPI. Like, yes, it’s work. I said, “Oh, you know, 10 years and I finally, you know, hit Smart Passive Income,” but it should be fun, right?

Like, looking at Pat as an example of that. You know, you watch his videos, you watch his shorts. That’s fun, right? And so I hope that we can look to you as an example of keeping it light, keeping it fun, leaning into the way your brain is wired, the way you wanna connect with the audience. I think that’s why you have such a large audience on both ladders, right?

Because you always just do it your way, and, uh, you’re not afraid to experiment and have fun with it, and that’s what I wanna bring to the community as well. Let’s have some fun. Let’s, let’s see what’s possible. Yeah. It’s so awesome.

Pat Flynn: Find the fun. That’s what I always say. Yeah. And, and I’m following my heart there, and I hope you do, too.

And as far as the community, I mean, we, ever since the beginning, we structured it so that it wasn’t even about me. I personally wasn’t in there very often. I was in there for office hours. Mm-hmm. I was in there, my, my courses were in there. But as far as actively engaging in conversations, I mean, you’ve already done more than I had.

And I think this is exactly what the community needs, and, and this is why I think it’s going to thrive without me, because it never was about me. It was about the kind of people that we attracted, the good, kindhearted, service-based people who are here for the right reasons. You know, we, we got very lucky at SPI to attract really good people on the team, in the community, people who are here for the right reasons.

There are other communities of entrepreneurs, and I go in there and I’m just like, “I need to take a bath after.”

Liz Wilcox: Yeah.

Pat Flynn: It’s, like, icky.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah. Pat’s so humble, y’all. He says, “Oh, we got lucky,” but really, it’s who Pat is and who, you know, I, I hope to take the baton and continue the legacy of just having amazing values and being a real person, being transparent.

One of the things that I think Pat and I have in common is just our willingness to share, right? I love sharing what I’ve done so that others can take it and make it their own. And so I d- I don’t think it’s luck what Smart Passive Income has become. I think it’s a lot of work and transparency on Pat’s part, and I’m just really so honored that you thought, “Oh yeah, Liz is the right person for the job.”

And I know during our transition and during our negotiations, that was honestly the thing we both had in common was, is this the right fit? You know- Yeah … we didn’t-

Pat Flynn: It wasn’t even about money negotiation. It was just like, “Why do you wanna do this, Liz?”

Liz Wilcox: Right. And it was, w- you know, who do you want? And I, I think one of the first q- you know, I had my handy-dandy notebook, and every time we would get on a call, I would just ask questions and, you know, give Pat time to ask questions.

And they were very similar of, you know, I asked Pat, “Where do you… If you are gone, where do you s- want SPI to go in one year, five years, 10 years?” That was important to me. It’s not… I always say, “It doesn’t have to be my idea. It has to be the best idea.” And I figured who would have the better idea than the, than the person who created it?

The, you know, this is his baby. Where should we be taking this? If you didn’t have the two ladders, where would you be taking it? Why, uh, why these kinds of people? ‘Cause there’s, there’s a lot of entrepreneurs out there that teach entrepreneurs. There’s a lot of creators, but, you know, Pat, why do you think you attract these awesome people?

What is it about you or about the mission, the values, things like that? And that was so fun getting to know you in that way- Mm … and getting to know SPI in that way, and it was similar to what I was trying to do with my personal brand, that it was like within the first couple of meetings I was like, “Oh, this is, you know, if we… as long as we can, you know, no hiccups and we can figure out financing, this is gonna happen.” And that was just such an awesome feeling for me.

Pat Flynn: Yeah. I mean, again, it just somehow Things aligned.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah.

Pat Flynn: Um, and you know, this is the first time a lot of you are hearing about it, but the transaction happened in April, and the reason why we’re mentioning it now is because I wanted to make sure I positioned Liz in a way that showed that she was gonna bring something good, and she has.

And ever since she came on in April, things have been amazing. I’ve gotten actually a lot of messages and emails from people saying, “Wow, the community’s livelier than ever. Like, how did you do it?” I’m like, “And I credit you for that.” But now nobody could say like, “Oh, well, once Liz comes on, it’s gonna go downhill.”

It’s kind of actually gone uphill since she’s come on, and that’s why I wanted to… A- in fact, Liz wanted to make the announcement a little sooner just so we can make a big splash, and I was like-

Liz Wilcox: I got excited.

Pat Flynn: I know. I’m excited. No, you know, I’m excited too, but I, I was like, “Liz, I owe it to you- Yeah … to position you as a leader who, who could come in and make positive change here in this community, and you’ve done that.

Now we’re making the an- the announcement.” It’s similar to, uh, I used to follow a blogger, J.D. Roth, from Get Rich Slowly, uh, one of my favorite bloggers, and I remember one time I read about the fact that he had sold Get Rich Slowly, and everybody was like up in arms about it ’cause he’s like, “Oh, no, it’s g- it’s gonna go downhill.”

And he was like, “Well, that was last year I sold it, and you, none of you even said anything about it.” And similar except it’s gotten even much better now. So there’s that. But also, again, I cannot wait to come back on and give a report on things that are happening on the Deep Pocket Monster side of things and the big things that we’re doing there.

And, you know, I hope that you can all kind of rally behind Liz and, and, and help her with her vision ’cause she’s got these amazing ideas to bring the community even closer together, some in-person stuff, which is what we’ve always wanted to do. You’ve implemented some other things like co-working inside of the community, which, which we had never done before, and that’s go- going very well.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah.

Pat Flynn: Just you have… I mean, maybe you could share a little bit about where you wanna take things.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah. So when I was in negotiations, I was thinking about, you know, what is the future of SPI and, you know, taking into account what Pat had said about where he hoped the community went and also thinking about what do creators need right now.

What are our unique 2026 and beyond problems, right? And working on my side of things and knowing that people, we just need each other, right? I don’t care what anybody says, community is not dead. It is here to stay. We are a communal species. And so thinking about how I could just make more connection ’cause it’s, it’s not about Pat, and it’s not about me now.

You know, Pat just said, “Oh, I hope you can rally around Liz,” but really I want you to rally around each other. The only reason I’ve been able to spend 10 years creating that smart passive income is because I had a community, because I had people rallying around me saying, “Yes, Liz, you can do it. That’s a great idea,” or, “That’s a good idea.

Here’s how to make it great,” right? And I just truly believe there’s no such thing as a solopreneur. I really dislike that term because we’ve got to work together. And so just more of that, more of, you know, how can we get the community together? We implemented co-working, so come hang out, tell us what you’re working on, and get it done over the next hour, right?

We’ve actually added more hours to that because people are showing up. People… You know, we serve all around the world. They’re, “Oh, well I’m over here in Australia. Mm-hmm. Can we get an hour?” So we did that, right? And thinking about who Pat is and how, you know, we used to say Team Flynn. It’s like, okay, what, what is the new era of Team Flynn?

You know, I’m, I’m not Pat, right? My name’s not Flynn. And I thought, how about we go with Team Win? How can we get creators more wins? Because that is how You get to smart passive income. I’m reminded of a story of, uh, Will Smith tells. He says, “Oh, my dad knocked down a wall and told me and my brother to rebuild it over the summer, and we got a quarter of the way through and I said, ‘Dad, this is impossible.

The wall is gone.'” And his dad picked up the brick and said, “Son, you don’t build a wall. You just build… You know, you just lay one brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid, and one day you’ll have your wall.” And that’s what I want with creators. You don’t just get passive income, you know? But if you just do one thing at a time, one day you might, right?

You- you’re gonna build that wall. And so WIN for us now stands for what’s important now. And so my mission with SPI is to help you determine what’s important now. Every day, you gotta-

Pat Flynn: Love that.

Liz Wilcox: … get up. Thank you. Every day you gotta get up and you gotta create in some way. So what is important now? What is your win of the day?

And I’m so excited to help-

Pat Flynn: That’s so cool …

Liz Wilcox: so many people figure that out. And like you just said to me, I feel so grateful for you to allow me to step into this bigger purpose. I’m so excited.

Pat Flynn: Ah. I can’t believe we actually announced it. And- and so what does this mean for the podcast? I mean, there’s been a lot of us together on the podcast recently, which is- which has been great.

And again, I will come back for sure, obviously. But Liz is gonna take over the show for a bit, and you’ll see more of her, but it’s not just, again, like she said, gonna be about her, because Liz also wants to capture case studies from our very own students and community members. And maybe you could talk a little bit about the show, and people listening now kind of like, okay, why should they listen to the next one?

Liz Wilcox: Yeah. So to be honest with everyone, and I told Pat this After the sale, I said, “Dude, the thing I’m most nervous about is the podcast. That’s you. That’s your voice. That’s, you know, you’re in their earbuds. They’re listen- Oh, I’ve been listening to Pat since, you know, 2015 or whatever.” And so I’ve been super nervous about it, but Pat’s been gracious in this transition period, letting me co-host, bringing back, you know, a version of AskPat with me, and that’s been going really well.

And what I envision for the podcast is to continue that legacy of showcasing people on how they’ve created a living, showcasing tools and resources on, you know, how you can actually make money online, and really bringing in people that can help us determine what’s important now, help us with the wins, and sharing from our community, from the audience.

I’m talking about you listening right now. What have you been up to? What have you been doing? I would love to feature you. It’s not easy being Pat Flynn. He t- it took 18 years to get to this point, but you hear that story, and you dream. I’ve all d- we’ve all dreamed about it. Oh, I wanna get to that level, right?

But we need to hear more stories of the, all the levels, not just, you know, the superstars of entrepreneurship or YouTube or podcasting. I wanna hear from you. You know, how did you get from zero to 100, right? How did you get your first client? How did you get those first thousand YouTube subscribers? So I cannot wait to feature people from our actual community, ’cause again, it’s, it’s not a- it was never about Pat.

It’s not gonna ever be about me, about Liz. It’s always about you, and I wanna make sure I can create as many connections for you to reach other creators so we can all grow together.

Pat Flynn: Yeah. Amen. Amen. I’m excited for it. I’ll be listening on my car rides.

Liz Wilcox: Gosh, I hope so.

Pat Flynn: So thank you from the bottom of my heart to every single listener and viewer.

You have helped shaped my life In a way that I never thought possible. And SPI, pretty early on in the days of SPI, realized that it was much more than just about teaching business. It was about the community that we were forming together and the relationship that we had. And I wanna thank all of you in this transition for the support for the next era of my life, and thank you for continuing to be a part of this amazing community, ’cause that’s what it was always about.

It wasn’t about me, it was about you and your dream and unlocking your vers- best version of yourself as well, and connecting with people along the way to do it, to help you. Because Liz, I’m so blessed to have you and to, to, to know that SPI will be taken care of, if not be even better off without me is amazing.

Wow. So thank you.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah. Thank you, and thank you listening and watching. I cannot wait to see what we all do together.

Pat Flynn: This is gonna be awesome. Thank you, everybody