Pat Flynn — Smart Passive Income Founder | How Lean Learning Created a Million-Dollar Empire

2 min readJun 3, 2025

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About The Guest

Pat Flynn is an American entrepreneur, author, and podcast host best known for founding Smart Passive Income, a platform that teaches people how to build online businesses and generate passive income. After being laid off from his architecture job in 2008, he turned a small study guide website into a thriving business, eventually expanding into blogging, podcasting, and online courses. Flynn is widely respected for his transparency, ethical approach to marketing, and focus on serving his audience first.

Talking Points

00:00 — Intro
01:31 — How Pat Flynn Got Started
03:48 — Are We Learning Too Much?
06:57 — The Problem with School
13:43 — How Pat Changed His Mindset
20:03 — “Just in Time” Learning
29:32 — Sponsor Break
33:25 — Timing Your Next Big Idea
36:23 — Creating Healthy Pressure
46:32 — Mastering Microskills
54:36 — Mindsets Over Milestones
58:30 — Sponsor Break
1:01:08 — Microskill Mistakes
1:07:15 — Teach to Learn
1:12:57 — Expertise vs. Experience
1:17:44 — Final Thoughts
1:24:55 — Pat’s Lesson for His Kids

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What is the Success Story Podcast?

Welcome to the Success Story Podcast, hosted by entrepreneur, business executive, author, educator & speaker, Scott D. Clary. On this podcast, you’ll find interviews, Q&A, keynote presentations & conversations on sales, marketing, business, startups, and entrepreneurship.

Scott will discuss some of the lessons he’s learned over his own career, as well as have candid interviews with execs, celebrities, notable figures, and politicians. All who have achieved success through both wins and losses, to learn more about their life, their ideas, and insights. He sits down with leaders and mentors and unpacks their stories to help pass those lessons on to others through both experiences and tactical strategies for business professionals, entrepreneurs, and everyone in between.

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