discipline

100: John Lee Dumas: I invested in a mentor that kicked my butt

Intro: Welcome to the Fast Leader Podcast, where we explore convenient yet effective shortcuts that will help you get ahead and move forward faster by becoming a better leader. And now here’s your host, customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligence practitioner, Jim Rembach.

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Jim Rembach:    Okay, Fast Leader Legion, today I’m so excited because we’re celebrating our hundredth episode and the guest that I have on the show today made a huge difference in me getting to this point. You see because through their teaching on how to podcast that made the difference for me and so many others. John Lee Dumas was born and raised in the classic New England village of Alfred, Maine with her younger sister. At 18 John left Maine for Provence College in Rhode Island where he accepted an ROTC scholarship that pays his way to school. At 22, he graduated and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in U.S. Army. Before his graduation buzz had worn off, he was shipped off to Ft. Lewis, Washington. He spent the next four years as an Army Officer, stationed at no less than five duty stations. 

By the time he was 24 years old he had completed a 13-month tour of duty in Ar- Ramadi, Iraq. At 26, his active duty requirement had ended and as a Captain he entered the reserves he knew he was ready for some rest and relaxation so he took off for Guatemala where he lived with Guatemalan family for four months. Upon returning to the US he felt it was time to get down to business. He applied himself and at the age of 27 he entered law school preparing to follow in his father’s footsteps. One semester showed him that that was not is desired path and this time India and Nepal call them away for another four months of travel. Upon his return from this foray he spend a few years living in some great cities including Boston and New York City. He has some great jobs and some not so great jobs all of which brought with them a corporate air. 

At 31, John move back to the great state of Maine 13 years after his departure. He took yet another professional job which was very enjoyable for a year. Then one rainy spring day in 2012 it happened, while listening to a podcast he taught to himself, “I can do this, in fact, I can do this better.” And over the course of a few short months he immersed himself in his new venture and the more research he did the larger his passion grew. On June 21, 2012, he turned his notice in and took off for a three-day conference in New York City called Blog World. Four months and a lot of hard work later, he launched entrepreneur on far.com an award-winning podcast were he interviews today’s most inspiring entrepreneurs seven days a week.  John currently resides in Puerto Rico. John Lee Dumas are you ready to help us get over the hump?

John Lee Dumas: Yes.

Jim Rembach:    Okay, JLD, I’ve given our legion a little bit about you but can you tell us what your current passion is so that we get to know you even better?

John Lee Dumas: Jim, I’ve a lot of passions but I big believer also on focusing, following one course until success. Or maybe that on this case one passion till success so that would be drumroll the Mastery Journal, this is my current passion and I’ve spent a year researching and becoming an expert in productivity and discipline and in focus. I’ve mastered all three of this skills, you need too as well the Mastery Journal is your guide to do just that. 

Jim Rembach:    For me even when I look at the amount of productivity, the amount of content the amount of just overall work product that you do is quite tremendous. Now I also know that you’re really big into having teams in order to support you, so give us an idea of how big is the EO Fire team?

John Lee Dumas: Well again, I’m not trying to brag when I say that my three greatest strengths are, productivity, discipline and focus because that’s like three strengths. Where my weaknesses like are bigger than the entire screen here, like most people we all have a ton of weaknesses so I build the team around my weaknesses so that I can focus in amplifying my strengths. Productivity, discipline and focus, I can let other people take of the rest. So my team is a lovely Kate Ericson, she’s my partner in both business and life. We have three virtual assistants in the Philippines, one in Pakistan and a Puerto Rican employee in our new island home of Puerto Rico. 

Jim Rembach:    I have to ask, you lived in San Diego for many years, but what took you to Puerto  Rico? Why Puerto Rico?

John Lee Dumas: Taxes, enough said and mic drop. 

Jim Rembach:    That’s right.

John Lee Dumas: So now, it’s really interesting that you say that too because in Episode 99 of the Fast Leader show my guest Steve Mariotti who is the author of the Entrepreneurs Manifesto talked about a couple of things, one is I see there’s a gross negligence of our education system not teaching entrepreneurialism. And if you think about that as well as the controlling factors that a lot of companies have in regards to innovation, we call it business acumen in a company, with you having over 1,500 episodes of your daily podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire to reflect upon, what do you see as the common reason why entrepreneurs struggle?

Jim Rembach:    They don’t know how to set an accomplish goals, it’s really that simple. Entrepreneurs because they don’t know how to set an accomplish goals. In entrepreneurs who have figured out how to do that, they win. And it’s really that simple and other people, they lose, if they try to complicate things because it doesn’t have to be complicated. Like what is the goal that’s going to get you to the next level? For me back in 2012 it was one singular goal launching EO Fire, my podcast. Nothing else mattered, no distractions, one focus, I accomplished it. I knocked down and there’s domino and it started a chain reaction of awesome, it’s now turning into a multi-million dollar a year business. Over 1500 episodes, over 40 million listeners, everything has come from that one accomplishment of that goal, launching this podcast EO Fire. 

John Lee Dumas: And I think that’s really important for people, in fact it was so important that’s why I launch my previous passion, which was my passion project of last year, the Freedom Journal which look very similar but it’s a very different content within, it’s about how you can accomplish your number 1 in 100 days. Because I saw people struggling with this that’s why I say, “I’ll provide the guide, the step by step over a 100 days of how you can set a smart goals specific measurable attainable relevant time bound and then accomplish that one goal, one goal singular in 100 days. Over 16,000 people had bought in to this and it’s amazing the way it’s changing lives. 

Jim Rembach:    In the Fast Leader Legion you talked about your avatar for the Entrepreneur’s on Fire podcast being your jimmy, that’s your avatar, but for me my Jimmy is actually somebody who is working in customer care, customer experience and in an organization trying to innovate, trying to create a better culture and trying to really move things forward so that they make better connections with the customer. Now I see and have had the opportunity to see you interact with a lot of folks and you are very customer-centric and focused and you’re a great example in a lot of different ways. But if somebody isn’t an outside entrepreneur they’re intrapreneur, there inside an organization, and they don’t necessarily have the opportunity for goals for them to set them, how do they go about accomplishing things that you would see?

John Lee Dumas: I want to go back to your comment about being customer-centric because I think that such an important comment to kind of sit upon for one second because so many people say, “John, how can I scale my business? How can I leverage everything that I do? Like within in the world where you can do that and you should doing that on some level because it’s a great opportunity but you have to do things that don’t scale. What are the things they don’t scale? Being customer-centric meaning like reaching out having the one-on-one conversation that’s not being recorded just you and one of the person that’s a customer, that’s a client and you asking him that question, what are you struggling with?  What’s one way that when improve my business? Something you didn’t like about what I did or something that you loved about what I did, how do you find me? Ask those questions you can get the answers and you can amplify the things that are working. You can fix the things that aren’t. That comes one-to-one conversations. 

So those one-on-one conversations you’re having aren’t scalable but the results and the ideas that you can implement from those conversations are, so whenever anybody joins podcasts is paradise they get a one-on-one personal phone call from me, thanking them and asking them, “Hey, how did you hear about us?” and what was like your buying decision? What made you decide to pull the trigger? And so that allows me to learn who I consider my best clients, like people that are joining podcast’s paradise. I do the same thing with the freedom draw, I help on the phone call or Skype call with the random people that purchase our Freedom Journal. Of course, I haven’t dealt all those 16,000 people but I’ve it with a number of them so I can learn from them. I can have those one-on-one conversations.  So being customer centric is so important. Doing things that don’t scale is a key, and I think it entrepreneurs me to learn how to do that. 

Jim Rembach:    John, you’re definitely an inspirational person. You have had the opportunity to have several guests on your show that are inspirational as well. And one of the things that we look for on the Fast Leader show is quotes because they are so inspiring, is there a quote that stands out for you that you can share?

John Lee Dumas: There’s a quote that change my life. I mean from 26 to 32, that was my post- military years and pre-EO Fire years, six years I struggled—I went to law school I dropped out, cover finance I quit, commercial real estate I dropped that as well, it was six years of struggle of trying to find myself cause I’m trying to find my passion and finally I get 32 years old, I read this quote from Albert Einstein and he said, “Try not to become a person of success but rather person of value.” And I look back over the past six years now it just like I been just trying to chase success. Like in my version of success at that point in life was wrong like it all about money and respect and fame and fortune, it was never going to bring you what I wanted. So, I flipped it all on this head things that that quote and I just became a person of value. I developed EO Fire, which is a free, valuable and consistent podcast every single day, just delivering value. I did that for 200 episodes without getting a dollar back it was just value, value, value, my time, my energy, my blood, sweat and tears. Of course, the revenues started coming in at some point and now here we are today about three and half years later from that point, over 10M dollars in revenue. So, it worked because I added value first and then success found me. 

Jim Rembach:    John, without a doubt going through that process, transformation, struggling all of that there’s a lot of humps that we have to get over even when you start talking about scaling a business, from the start-up phase and those 200 episodes before anything ever came, and we have a lot of humps to get over and they really help us become better leaders, is there a story that that you can share with us about getting over the hump?

John Lee Dumas: My big hump was actually pushing publish on the podcast. And I think that a lot of people need to read the book, The art of work by Steven Pressfield and it is just a really good book because it show you how much resistance plays a huge role in our life. Like you get to that finish line but you have such resistance from crossing it, like I was all ready to push publish on my podcast then all of a sudden fear took over and I was like, push publish and it becomes real and if it fails then it fails then I’m a failure but if I’m in pre-publish mode then maybe it’ll succeeds but maybe it fails nobody knows so we can just keep living in this la-la land forever. So I push back my podcast launch one week, then two, then four, then five, finally my mentor came up to me and said, “John, I want to fire you if you don’t publish this podcast. 

So, fortunately I invested in myself wisely with a mentor that kick my butt and I publish a podcast and all was well in the world and that happened to me time and time again with the book that I publish, Podcast Launch, Podcast Paradise, with the Freedom Journal on some levels even with the Mastery Journals like it’s just like, Kate was fine and just like John it’s enough already, like it’s good enough, it’s where it needs to be. Like you’re just tweaking nothing right now, like let’s get this out in the world. So, you need those people in this world because we all have that resistance, develop that impostor syndrome that said, “Who are you to create this? To talk about that?” I love this acronym ILT, invest, learn and teach. What that means is investing yourself that can be time, doesn’t always have to be money it can be money, it’s energy bandwidth, learn that thing that you invested in and then turn around and teach it because to everybody who hasn’t invest and learn up to that point you’re the expert so turn around and teach and guide people and see what happens. 

Jim Rembach:    Without a doubt you expanded well beyond. You have webinar and Fire skills on Fire, just goes on and on. But moving to Puerto Rico—Kate—you have a lot of things on your plate, but when you start looking at one goal, what would it be? 

John Lee Dumas: Right now my one goal, my one focus is the Mastery Journal, that’s on the business side, you have to generate 23rd launch. So the kind of business goal that we have right now nothing else clouds that everything we do is focused towards that. But a life goal, this is a life goal that I think is important for me because it wasn’t a forefront goal for the first couple of years and I pay for it, it’s fitness and nutrition. Like those are two areas that I let slide and the reality is you realize what is life without health? And frankly, you have all the money in the world but you don’t have your health like you’re not going to be as happy as if you’re a broke backpack across Europe. An unhealthy rich person will trade places with that person in a second and heck sometimes I wish I was that broke backpacker right now because I think it would be fun to start all over again and try to build something up. Now that I’ve already built something up I got to keep holding up this big wave that is the multi-million dollar a year business and that takes time, energy and effort that I’m not able to do other things like travel as much as I’d want to or do this or do that. That’s why some changes will be coming in the future, maybe they won’t, well see but… you know it’s a forefront my number one goal in life is health. 

Jim Rembach:    And the Fast Leader Legion wishes you the very best. Now before we move on let’s get a quick word from our sponsor:

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Jim Rembach:     Alright here we go Fast Leader Legion it’s time for the Hump Day Hoedown. Okay, JLD, the Hump Day Hoedown is the part of our show where you give us good insight fast. So I’m going to ask you several questions and your job is to give us a robust yet rapid responses that are going to help us move onward and upward faster. JLD are you ready to hoedown?

John Lee Dumas: First, can I steal that name and keep it forever? And not say the one    anymore because that’s so much better. 

Jim Rembach:    I appreciate that. So, what do you think is holding you back from being an even better leader today?

John Lee Dumas: Time. I feel like time is something that is limited and I feel that there’s somethings that I’m letting pull myself and different directions does not allow me to focus on really doing deep work, which by the way is a great book by Cal Newport.

Jim Rembach:    What is the best leadership advice you have ever received?

John Lee Dumas: I miss really, really that quote by Albert Einstein, “Don’t be a person of success try to become a person of value because if you can lead with value you win.”

Jim Rembach:    What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

John Lee Dumas: My commitments to discipline. And by discipline I mean having a focus plan every single day that I execute on one step at a time. 

Jim Rembach:    What do you feel is one of your best tools that helps you lead in business or life? 

John Lee Dumas: Definitely schedule. Once is my scheduler that I use for everything, that’s how I schedule 20 interviews today that had gone flawlessly.

Jim Rembach:    Now, you’ve draft several books but is there another one that you could recommend, from any genre, to our listeners? 

John Lee Dumas: Yeah, the Chimp Paradox is something that I never talked about but it’s a great book. 

Jim Rembach:    Okay, Fast Leader Legion you can find links to that and other bonus information from today’s show by going to fastleader.net/JohnLeeDumas. In addition, JLD is giving away a free copy of the Freedom Journal to the first member of the Fast Leader Legion in the US that goes to iTunes, rates and reviews the Fast Leader Show and sends me an e-mail to let me know. Okay, JLD, this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question: Imagine you were given the opportunity to go back to the age of 25 and you have been given the opportunity to take the knowledge and skills that you have now back with you but you can’t take everything back you can only choose one, what skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why? 

John Lee Dumas: Productivity that would be the skill because if you’re able to produce quality content on a consistent basis you win. And so, productivity is everything.

Jim Rembach:    JLD, it was an honor to spend time with you today. Can you please share with the Fast Leader Legion how they can connect with you?

John Lee Dumas: All the magic in my world happens at eofire.com, we have free courses on podcasting, webinars, goals, funnels it’s there for you. And the masteryjournal.com we have an amazing campaign going on in Kickstarter where you can master productivity, discipline, and focus in 100 days.

Jim Rembach:    John Lee Dumas, thank you for sharing thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom, the Fast Leader legion honors you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. Woot! Woot!

Thank you for joining me on the Fast Leader show today. For recaps, links from every show, special offers and access to download and subscribe, if you haven’t already, head on over the fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster. 

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