How to Create a Community with Purpose with Pat Flynn #53

Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income joins Maelisa and Amber today to discuss how to create a community with a purpose. Pat wasn’t always a podcaster and an entrepreneur but stumbled into his position after losing his job as an architect. He learned how to sell online due to his sheer desperation but found success in his hard work, research, and failure. He created his podcast because he wanted to share his knowledge with others. He knows that his podcast helps to normalize what other entrepreneurs are going through. The community he has built is full of raving fans and through it, he has learned how to give and how to ask. Listen to Pat’s advice on how to create a community in your space on this episode of My Biz Bestie.

How to create a community of raving fans

Pat’s first goal of his work wasn’t to create an amazing community, it just sort of happened. His motto is to “serve first.” And with that motto creating a community just sort of falls into place. His advice to create a community is to find the commonalities of the audience and to create inclusion. When you purposefully include your audience in decisions then they become invested. He doesn’t hand over total control to his audience but engages with them. Much like people do on a team, he simply passes the ball to a teammate when asking for questions or ideas. Then his audience becomes more likely to interact and engage. Eventually, he created the Ask Pat podcast to be able to answer more and more of his listeners' questions.

Why is creating a community so important for your business?

Your community can support you in many different ways. They are your hope and support and can even become your raving fans. They can help you fight the internet trolls and help you to focus on growing your business in an authentic way. It is important to give as much as you can to your community, but it is just as important to ask as well. Sometimes you will get back things in return without even asking. But as long as you are giving you will receive. It is important to learn that you can serve and sell at the same time. Give, give, give, but when you have something worth selling then sell it.

Do you know your purpose?

As a business owner, you need to ensure that your business has a direction and purpose. You can give and give, but if your community doesn’t know how to give back they won’t be able to reciprocate. Think about how your goals and mission fit into the life that you really want and from there you can create ways for your community to help give back to you. This is an important way to create a community without overgiving. You can sell and serve at the same time but you have to be able to make money at what you do. The more capital you have the more you can serve your community and purpose.

How did Pat’s mission evolve over time?

His first mission was simply survival. When he first began his business, he was just looking for a way to make ends meet. His survival instinct was helpful, though and it led him to be bolder than he ever thought he could be. His next goal was to become financially secure which then led him to set a goal to be able to pay his kids’ college tuition before they turned 3. Now his goal is philanthropy. At every turn, he kept leveling up his goals. Every new goal that he has met has unlocked new goals that he had never thought of before. And as his goals changed his inspiration has changed as well.

In this episode... [2:12] How did Pat get into podcasting? [11:50] How has Pat created such an amazing community? [21:05] Challenges create a fun way for a community to interact [28:05] Serve first and see what you get in return [34:40] How did Pat’s mission evolve over time? [39:02] How do you build a community with all the noise that is out there? Resources & People Mentioned Chalene Johnson Connect with Pat Flynn Smart Passive Income Ask Pat Connect With Maelisa and Amber www.MyBizBestie.com And the MBB Facebook Page

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