Do you want to know John Lee Dumas‘ keys to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
Recently, I had the opportunity to interview my friend. He is the founder of the award-winning podcast, Entrepreneurs On Fire.
In our interview, he talks about the common traits of successful entrepreneurs and shares insights from his new book, The Common Path To Uncommon Success.
Ready to discover what it takes to truly embody success? Listen to John's advice!
Watch the video below:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
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Want a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment? CLICK HERE to pre-order John Lee Dumas' new book, The Common Path To Uncommon Success!
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John Lee Dumas has built a multi-million dollar podcasting business.
John hosts an interview with a successful entrepreneur, seven days per week. On his podcast, John has interviewed over 3,000 of the world's best-known entrepreneurs. Some of these people include Tony Robbins, Tim Ferris, Barbara Corcoran, Jack Canfield, and Gary Vaynerchuk.
John's new book, The Common Path To Uncommon Success, is based on thousands of interviews from his podcast. Inside, he outlines a 17-step roadmap that entrepreneurs should take if they aspire to achieve financial and lifestyle freedom. In our interview, John talks about what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur. Let's dive in!
Do you mind sharing a little bit about your story and how you get started with Internet marketing?
I was born and raised in a small town in southern Maine. My upbringing was very traditional. I went to college on an Army scholarship and spent 8 years as an officer in the U.S. army. When I was 23 years old I went to Iraq and did a 13-month duty as a tank platoon commander.
I was in charge of 3 tanks and 16 men in a time of war. Those were pretty intense times. After my time in the army, I tried law school thinking that was the next logical move. I hated it from day one and dropped out after the first semester, so I took off for a little Eat, Pray, Love moment.
I traveled the world with the intention of “finding myself.”
When I came home I thought I was ready to get serious so I tried corporate finance with John Hancock in Boston. That lasted for one year before I quit, After that, I tried real estate, both residential and commercial. Overall, my 26-32 year range was what I call “the 6 years of struggle.” Frankly, I wasn't finding any success or happiness.
I started my Internet marketing journey when I was 32 years old. During that time, I started reading self-help books, like Think and Grow Rich and The Four-Hour Workweek. I was also listening to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks. Podcasting was a medium that I clicked with right away.
I planted a seed that eventually led to me launching Entrepreneurs On Fire. This was the first daily podcast that interviewed successful entrepreneurs 7 days a week. The uniqueness that I was able to acquire within the daily podcast world led me to get some momentum, authority, and influence.
I ended up hosting 2,000 episodes in 2,000 days!
To date, I've hosted over 3,000 interviews with the world's most successful entrepreneurs. There have been over one hundred million listens of my podcast, and one million listens of the show every single month.
This is my passion project and something that I've been able to turn into a great financial machine. We just crossed our 91st month in a row where our net profit has been over $100,000. It's been quite the journey.
After interviewing over 3,000 incredible entrepreneurs, who have been the most impressive people that you've interviewed? What were the key lessons that you've learned from them?
I've learned from every single one of my guests. These interviews have allowed me to build friendships and grow my network. Equally as important, these interviews have given my audience the ability to learn from these amazing mentees of mine.
If you are an entrepreneur who is on fire, you've been on my show.
People like Tony Robbins, Barbara Corcoran, Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jack Canfield, and Brian Tracy, to name a few. Such a slew of inspiring people. I have found three commonalities that exist amongst all successful entrepreneurs.
First, they are productive individuals. Being productive means that you are producing the right content. You are giving a real solution to your audiences' real problems. If you're doing that, you're being productive. Conversely, if you're doing what 99% of people do every single day, you're just being busy.
Second, they are disciplined. As an entrepreneur, you have to be disciplined. This means that you are a disciple of a plan of action. Entrepreneurs on fire do the right things within that plan of action.
Finally, successful entrepreneurs can focus. That is an acronym for “follow one course until success.” If you can focus, you will win. Those who focus go one inch wide and one mile deep. Because of this, they become the best at that one thing.
People want the best. They don't want the second best. Although I was a terrible podcaster back in 2012 when I first started, I was still the best. I focused on my daily podcast until I was successful.
From all of the interviews that you've done thus far, what have you found drives a lot of successful entrepreneurs?
Back in 2015, I was doing financially well with the podcast. I interviewed someone during that time who said something that has always stuck with me which is, “You have to find a way to go from success to significance.” At the time, I had achieved the success that I thought I had wanted. However, I knew that something was missing.
For the last six years, I've been focused on creating significance in my life.
When you ask a lot of people what they are working towards, they respond with, “I want to make more money.” I get that, but when does more stop? Unfortunately, for some people achieving more never stops until it's too late.
Today, I live in Puerto Rico. I work hard 5 days per month. The other 25 days of the month I am working on my health, my relationships, my wellness, and exploring the world 75-90 days a year with my girlfriend.
We prioritize other aspects of our life, other than just work. Our business could have hit $10 million last year if we sat down and did nothing other than 30 days of hard work. However, even though we only do 5 days of work out of the month, we are still able to hit $2-3 million per year. We have enough.
I don't want to stop making money, but my lifestyle is important. That's my version of uncommon success — financial freedom, and fulfillment. I know what that looks like because I've created it.
Why did you decide to write your new book, The Common Path To Uncommon Success? What is the core message of your book that you want to share with people?
When I came up for air from my season of working hard I started to design the lifestyle that I wanted. I've learned so much from interviewing 3,000 uncommonly successful entrepreneurs. In 2019, I sat down and started writing down all of the similarities that they had in common with one another.
When I boiled it down, I was looking at 17 core foundational principles.
Every single entrepreneur that I've interviewed has gone on this exact same path within their life and their business. I decided to create a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment.
I've never written a book before, but I saw 17 chapters staring back at me. I knew that it needed to be written so I took the traditional publishing route and got Harper Collins to spot me a $350,000 advance. In 2020, while we were quarantined, I got to work writing.
My version of work was spending time writing my book during the first two hours of every day. It took me 8 months and 480 writing hours to write 17 chapters. I'm so proud of the final result.
Of the 3,000 people whom I've interviewed, I thought about who best exemplified each of the 17 steps. I reached out to those people and they ended up contributing an amazing section to the step that best embodies their Zone Of Fire.
What are some of your favorite steps from the book?
Step 1 is identifying your big idea. This is a sad truth… so many people are going to die never even knowing what their big idea was. It was inside of them all along, but they chose to not share it with the world. When you know what your big idea is and you embody it, you live inside your Zone Of Fire.
This is when you're living every day doing what you should do, where you should do it, with whom you should do it.
Step 2 is about discovering your niche. Find a void within your big idea that is not being met. Another way of saying this is to find a problem that has yet to be solved within your big idea. That is how you will get the ball rolling.
And skipping ahead a bit, step 7 is creating a content production plan. The reason why I am such a prolific producer of content is that I once sucked at content production, but I fixed it. I work 5 days out of the month because I have perfected my content production plan.
Do you aspire to become an entrepreneur on fire?
There is no reason why you can't have financial and lifestyle freedom. However, you must be willing to work hard for it and strive for significance.
I highly recommend that you read John Lee Dumas' new book, The Common Path To Uncommon Success. I'm halfway through and it and it's nothing short of amazing. When you pre-order John's book, he gives you 5 once-in-a-lifetime bonuses, valued at over $1,300!
To give you a sneak peek… one of the free bonuses that he will give you is his Freedom, Mastery & Podcast Journals. For those of you who live in the USA, he will ship the journals directly to your door, free of charge. Those of you who live outside of the USA will receive digital packs.
I'll leave you with one of John Lee Dumas' favorite quotes by Albert Einstein, “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
As you move along your entrepreneurial journey, make sure that you don't fall into the trap of chasing success. Rather, find ways to add value to peoples' lives, create an impact, and share your message with the world. That is a testament to true success in life.
Want a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment? CLICK HERE to pre-order John Lee Dumas' new book, The Common Path To Uncommon Success!