Pat Flynn Got Fired. Then Built a 3 Billion-View Pokémon Brand

Noah Kagan Presents

Noah Kagan

Entrepreneurship, Business

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Pat Flynn went from getting laid off in 2008... to building a seven-figure
YouTube business, selling out Pokémon conventions, and leading a legacy
entrepreneurship brand (Smart Passive Income).

In this episode, we talk about reinvention, raising kids, chasing relevance,
and how he built Deep Pocket Monster into a viral brand with 3 billion+
views.

You’ll love this one if you’ve ever pivoted careers, tried to balance family
with ambition, or just want to geek out on business and storytelling.
🎧 Enjoy!

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why Pat says “count uploads, not likes”
• How getting laid off changed everything
• The difference between “just-in-time” vs. “just-in-case” learning
• What he's saying *no* to (even if it could go viral)
• Why storytelling and speed-learning are the future’s top skills
• Pat’s exact business breakdown: SPI, YouTube, events, and more
• How he handles jealousy and stays relevant
• The surprising truth about parenting, pressure, and hot tubs

Links & resources mentioned:
• Pat’s book: *Lean Learning* – https://leanlearningbook.com
• Deep Pocket Monster (YouTube) –
https://www.youtube.com/@DeepPocketMonster
• Smart Passive Income – https://www.smartpassiveincome.com
• Follow Pat on Twitter → @PatFlynn – https://twitter.com/patflynn
• My book → Million Dollar Weekend – https://milliondollarweekend.com

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	But wasn't for those denials, I wouldn't have tried these things.
0:03.5	I was forced to put myself into a situation to make decisions that I wouldn't normally have.
0:08.5	So I'm not saying, like, quit your job today, but put yourself in situations where you're
0:13.5	going to have to show up and do things that probably you're either avoiding or procrastinating
0:17.8	on.
0:20.8	What is up, you sexy bastards?
0:22.7	It is your boy, Tokyo Kid, aka Rabbi Can't Lose, aka Noah Kagan.
0:28.3	Today, I'm going old school with a great friend of mine, Pat Flynn.
0:32.6	He is one of the originals, truly original online business and creators of smart passive income. You have definitely
0:39.1	heard his show. You've probably bought one of his books. As well, he, if you didn't know,
0:43.5	is one of the largest Pokemon brands online with over three billion views. Plus, he has a
0:48.8	brand new book, which I've really enjoyed, called The Lean Learner. Some good stories in there,
0:53.8	some of his failures and some of
0:54.8	his techniques to be able to accomplish and do so many things. Now, in this conversation with
0:59.6	Pat, we go over the book and his story and the day he got fired and there's three gigantic
1:03.7	things you're going to take away from this episode. Number one, count uploads, not likes.
1:09.0	And this is really interesting about how personally for me,
1:13.1	dealing with jealousy and how Pat does it. Number two, what is just in time learning?
1:18.1	Sounds like we're saying Justin, but just in time learning. So as you are doing things,
1:22.3	you are learning. And we have a really cool conversation about that. And lastly, as AI takes over
1:26.5	everybody, how do you still win?
1:28.7	So we talk about two things that you can do in there to have success, even though AI is coming
	...

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