Will It Fly Book: Pat Flynn's Business Validation Framework

Pat Flynn's Will It Fly? is a business validation book that tackles two questions most entrepreneurs skip: will the market actually pay for this, and does this business fit the life you want to live? In this episode, Mark interviews Pat about the book's core framework, challenges him to share actionable tips, and asks how Pat validated the book itself using his own methods.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Why Will It Fly? addresses both market validation and lifestyle alignment
The Airport Test and Oprah Test for checking personal fit
Pat's customer PLAN framework: Problems, Language, Anecdotes, and Needs
How Pat pre-sold the book face-to-face at conferences with a 90% conversion rate
How to validate business ideas in stages to minimize risk

Show Notes

Pat gives his elevator pitch for Will It Fly? — a validation book done in two ways: validating the idea to the market, and validating that the idea aligns with your personal goals and lifestyle.
Pat explains the lifestyle design aspect through thought experiments including the Airport Test (imagining your ideal life five years out) and the Oprah Test (whether you would be comfortable as the public face of this business).
How the book helps people who already have businesses by bringing them back to fundamentals through practical exercises Pat calls Mission Designs.
Pat shares the customer PLAN framework (Problems, Language, Anecdotes, Needs) as a replacement for the traditional customer avatar, emphasizing real conversations and forum research over fictional profiles.
Pat reveals that he validated the book by asking people at conferences to pay him ten dollars on the spot — nine out of ten people paid immediately.
Discussion of iterative validation: start with a landing page, gauge interest, then deepen engagement before investing in full product creation.

Links Mentioned in This Episode

Will It Fly? by Pat Flynn
Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn

What's Changed Since This Episode

Will It Fly? launched in early 2016 and became a bestseller, selling over 100,000 copies. The validation framework Pat described has become standard practice in the entrepreneurial community. Pat himself has continued to practice what he preaches — in 2023 he sold Smart Passive Income and pivoted to Deep Pocket Monster, validating the new niche before going all in.

The forum research techniques Pat described still work, but modern tools like SparkToro, Reddit search, and AI-powered audience analysis have made the process faster. Pre-selling through platforms like Kickstarter and Gumroad has become mainstream. The core principle remains: get real people to take real action before you build the full product.

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