Pat Flynn: From Zero to 1M Subscribers - The Pokemon Dad's Secret Formula

0:00I have a brand new book called Make Money Easy. and if you're looking to create more financial freedom in your life, you want abundance in your life and you want to stop making money hard in your life, but you wanna make it easier, you wanna make it flow, you wanna feel abundant, then make sure to go to makemoneyeasybook.com right now and get yourself a copy. I really think this is gonna help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. We have some big guests and content coming up. Make sure you're following and stay tuned to this episode of the Daily Motivation Show.

0:38Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:51So here's the story of Pokemon. I know people with Pokemon, like Pikachu, like those things? Yes. does anyone not like does anyone know what pokemon is pokemon fans nice not many though has anybody ever heard the channel should i open it or should i keep it sealed that's me i have that's me um anyway it's just me opening packs and you see my weird looking thumbs and all that stuff that's the shorts channel but before that the pokemon channel actually started during during the pandemic because my kids got into pokemon so my kids were younger they got into pokemon they started collecting and anything the kids get into i want to get into as well i researched those things for example fortnight back before pokemon it was fortnight my kids were playing fortnight and i was like what what are you doing and they're like we're playing fortnight dad don't talk to me so what do i do i hire a 15 year old from fiverr to teach me how to play fortnight no i swear to god wow yeah like mentorship i'm telling you yeah you know he's 15 and he was really good he's good and i was like okay i was starting to get it and going through reps with him and after three weeks i was able to hang with my kids and then actually we were starting to play together and it became such a fun bonding experience during the pandemic to do that and then like kids do they moved on from that and they moved into another hobby and this was pokemon so i said okay pokemon i just know about a few things but uh i grew up playing magic the gathering not not pokemon now why didn't you go into fortnight videos or like let me start a business on Fortnite because my kids are under this right now.

2:23I didn't see any opportunities there that really piqued my interest. I guess if I look back, I probably could have found something, but I like things to come to me. And in the Pokemon space, they did because when I started to research a lot of YouTubers who were doing Pokemon, I also noticed that they were all doing the kind of same things and nobody was really telling good stories. Again, I'm all about stories. So I said, okay, I didn't create a YouTube channel that day, but I got involved in the community. and that's when I became a moderator for some of these Pokemon creators. That's when I started to have conversations with other collectors and go to events.

2:56Again, immerse myself in that space before even trying to create anything, right? How do I know what to create if I don't even know who these people are yet? And I started to learn more about what they liked and what they disliked and I started my channel in January of 2021. We got to 100 ,000 subs in 11 months and 28 days. I remember because we celebrated that day together on a live stream. We had, I think, 7 ,000 people watching that day. We got to 500 ,000 people or subscribers in three years, and we're now 1 million beyond that in only one year. In another fiscal year. In another fiscal year, yeah.

3:34Cool. And it's just been the funnest thing because I've just wanted to have fun. And I just kids. In fact, it's a lot of people our age who grew up with Pokemon who have now more than an allowance. They have a lot of money to spend on this. Yeah, and during the pandemic, everybody was all nostalgic and wanting to relive their childhood, and now they're bringing their kids along with them. And it's grown to the point now where I host two live events every single year called Card Party that each now will host 5 ,000 people. We had about 3 ,500 last year, and we're hosting two events this year. I have a relationship with Pokemon.

4:10Oh, by the way, this also, speaking of just like opportunities that pop up this pokemon thing allowed me to open packs of pokemon on ford field at the detroit lions vikings game this past season because for whatever reason they for good luck open packs of pokemon before the game i found out that their tiktok manager was a big pokemon fan so we had a connection and then i just i just pitched it what what's the worst that can happen he would say no i said hey what are the chances that i could get out there and open a pack with you on Ford Field. It's a good line. What's the chance? What are the chances?

4:46Yeah, it's a good line. And he said, come on by January 6th. It was the number one game of the season, by the way. And I got to open a pack. And that video was one of their top most viewed videos for a while, which means that they might invite me back. I also now with the San Diego Football Club, the new MLS soccer team. Yeah, let's go. There's a team here now? Oh, yeah. First year. This year? First year major league this year. Yes. That's cool. And they invited me to come out because a bunch of their guys watch the channel. And it's like when you put yourself out there in the world, your vibe will attract your tribe.

5:24And it's been the coolest thing, you know, to just be me. And for the longest time in my life, I didn't feel like I was good enough. I was short, like literally five feet tall in my senior year of high school. I was bullied I never felt like I belonged except in the marching band where all the other nerds who were picked on existed and that's where I found my home in marching band and then I eventually realized that when you embrace your weird that makes you unique and it brings other people like them or like you together and now I have this community of a million followers of other weird Pokemon nerds

6:13Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on The School of Greatness. And if you are loving The Daily Motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

7:03Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.