Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk to podcaster and entreprenuer John Lee Dumas about how he produces a monthly podcast working one day a week.
Entrepreneurs On Fire: https://www.eofire.com/
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fleamrktflipper/
Check out our FREE Workshop: https://courses.fleamarketflipper.com/flipper-university-workshop-webinar
You can find us at: https://fleamarketflipper.com/
Appliance Flipping Course: applianceflipping.com
John Lee Dumas Interview
Melissa: Hey everyone. We're so excited to talk to John Lee Dumas today. He is the host of the award-winning podcast, Entrepreneurs On Fire.
Rob: Guys, we have looked up to John for years and it, he's just amazing with his productivity, guys. He's been able to accomplish more than anybody else in his space. If you say them the name JLD, John Lee Dumas, everybody knows him in the podcast and in the entrepreneurial realm because of what he's been able to do.
So excited to talk to him guys, and take some great, great information away from this interview today. So stay tuned.
Melissa: And learn some of his productivity hacks.
Rob: John, thank you so much for jumping on here today. We greatly appreciate your time and are so excited for diving into what you are amazing at.
Productivity, productivity.
John: Oh, they do call me the Productivity Master for a reason. It's one of my three tenants in life and I will never change.
Melissa: That's awesome. So just to give, people, you really don't need an introduction. You've been doing this amazing podcast for years, but you started with a daily podcast for eight years, right?
It was eight years. How did you set that pace and how did you keep it going that for that long?
John: Well, I can tell you, I had a lot of doubters at the beginning. People told me this can't be done. And these are people, by the way, that were the top of the podcasting industry. The Podcast Answer Man, Cliff Ravenscraft, Jaime Masters, the Eventual Millionaire.
She was my mentor. He was my mastermind leader. And they said, do not do a daily podcast. You'll get burnt out. Your guests, you will not be able to find enough guests and they'll get burnt out. Your listeners will get burnt out. Everybody's gonna get burnt out. Don't do it. And I said, you know, The best people in the industry are telling me it can't be done, and I find a way to do it, isn't that quite an opportunity? And that was really kind of cool for me. So I gritted my teeth. I said, you know what? I know it's gonna be a grind at first. Cause I don't have systems, I don't have tools. I don't have a team, I don't have automation, but that will come in time. So honestly, for a year or two years, it was all about grinding it out.
I honestly wasn't very productive all the time because I didn't know what being productive was for that type of business. I had to figure it out step by step. I had to do the thing. I had to put in the reps. But every single day I documented my process. I found a little piece I could do a little bit better, a little bit quicker, a little more leverage, a little more scale.
And then over time, I built the team. I built the systems, I built the automations. I became unbelievably productive. So again, this wasn't overnight, but over years, I was able to get to the point where now as I'm sitting here 10 years into Entrepreneurs On Fire, 3,700 episodes. I do a seven day a week podcast, one day per week. Four days per month I work to do a daily podcast because every single Thursday I do seven to eight interviews for entrepreneurs on fire, and that's it. I don't do any work for the show except for that one day per week, so four days a month, I am running a multimillion dollar podcast that is served 365 days a year.
Rob: That is awesome. I love it.
John, and this is amazing. So you really have honed in on the skillset of, bringing it to systems, being able to do it and where you are right now, which it's, most people think it's an overnight success, but it's not. It's 10 years in the grind.
John: Yeah.
Rob: Doing it. What, what was that that drove you in the beginning?
Was it, and I know you mentioned other people, professionals, people at the top of their game are telling you can't be done. What would you say the one thing that kind of drove you to I'm gonna do this no matter what it takes. What, what was that?
John: Because honestly, it was something that I wanted to exist in the world as a podcast listener.
I was like, where's the daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. I would listen to that show. Honestly, like I found a void in the marketplace. I found something that was being underserved. There was a bunch of good podcasts interviewing entrepreneurs, but they were one day per month, and I liked those shows, but I hated having to wait a whole week.
Just like with Game of Thrones right now. It's like I hate having to wait a week for the next episode to come live because I wanna binge that. That's why when Netflix came out, you know, and they just released the entire season all at once, everybody loved that because nobody wants to wait. I mean, I get why they do it, but you know, I wanna watch as many shows as I wanna watch.
It's like, let's do this.
Melissa: That's good.
John: So I wanted that daily podcast and I said, hey, Gandhi once said, be the change you wanna see in the world. So I took his advice and here we.
Rob: I love it. I love it. Such great, great information.
Melissa: I wanted to ask you, so we're talking to people who are in a reselling side hustle or they wanna start a side hustle or they have the best intentions.
What would you tell somebody who, who might struggle, they have these intentions, they wanna do this, but what are some of the struggles that you see and how do they get past those?
John: Here's the problem with what 99% of those individuals who are struggling are doing, they're seeing other people doing a side hustle or something like that, that are having success and they copy that person. Nobody wants a pale, weak imitation of somebody else. They want the true, authentic, genuine version of you. So if you can listen to this next sentence, I'm about to share and truly live it for what it means for you, you will win. Not overnight, but over time.
Just continuing to implement this process, and that is become the number one solution to a real problem in this world. That sentence sounds simple, but if you unpack it, there's so much there. You need to become not a solution. The number one solution. Not just to a problem, to a real problem in this world, to a real pain point.
And if you become the number one solution to a real problem in this world, it's only a matter of time because people will beat a path to the doorstep of the number one solution to a real problem, and they will ignore the second best solution to infinity. So if you can truly identify a problem, you can become the best solution to, and that problem is a real problem, a real pain point you are going to win.
Rob: So powerful.
And for you it was, it was that one thing that you wanted and you knew other entrepreneurs wanted the same thing. So I love it. I totally love it.
Melissa: I think it's amazing that you've been able to take all your work and batch it into a couple days a month. Like, I love batching. Like he doesn't do it as much, but I love it.
I think it's great. What is something that could help somebody that struggles for time? Like they're pulled in so many different directions. How do they find the focus and the time in their schedule?
John: Listen, it's not easy, and I'm not gonna lie, we all have such busy lives. I mean, I'm looking at those gorgeous kids right over your right shoulder there.
I mean, those kids take time and they are worth all the time they take. And I mean, they deserve the time that you give to them. And people have jobs and families and responsibilities, and I get it. And I get it, and I get it. It's not easy. The problem is you've dug yourself in this hole. Now, I don't mean you've dug yourself into a hole because like, oh, you never should have had kids or sort of, No, that's not the hole I'm talking.
But the whole I'm talking about is that you've created a life that is necessitating, that you have that nine to five job or for some people's seven to six job that is just sucking your soul because you have to do it and you're getting home and you're tired and you're don't have the energy. Listen, a lot of you have dug yourself that hole.
Let's just be honest. It's a reality check. I've been in that hole before, so I know that you can get out of it because I've experienced that hole for sure. I've lived that hole in multiple different careers, by the way. But there is a way out and it's not gonna be easy, cuz if it was easy, everybody would be doing it.
But if you do really take these tenet, we're talking about when it comes to productivity and you say, hey, how can I get more done in an hour than some people do in a day? That's what you can start having a chance. I call it focus. If you follow one course until success cuz so many people who struggle for time, it's because they have a million things they wanna do.
They have, let's just, let's just not even be dramatic. Like a million. They have six. They have six things that they wanna do, and they're divided by those six things. They're putting little efforts into these six things and they're not moving much forward because it's, everything's divided by six. Well, what if everything was only divided by one?
What if you put an hour into something, into one thing that was your sole focus. Now you're gonna make impact. You're gonna make progress. And that is so critical and it's gonna take what we call, you know, the five to nine, which is the 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM or for some people, the seven to 12, it's gonna take some of those nights you're gonna have to give, you have to give that extra to get that ball rolling cuz getting that ball rolling initially.
That's the hardest part is that initial traction, that initial momentum, and then things start to work. Cuz then eventually if you can get that ball rolling a little bit and then a little bit more, then all of a sudden, you know, which it happened to you two at one point. You look at each other, you're like, we're making as much in our side hustle as we are in our actual job.
Now you can walk away from that job and now you all of a sudden have all day to do that thing to just focus, focus, focus. And that's how it becomes exponential and compounds the right way. So it's not gonna be easy, but if you focus on one thing and you know, it's delayed gratification. It's gonna suck now, but guess what?
There's gonna be a time that you're sitting in Puerto Rico and your legs are gonna be kicked up and it's your one day a month, you're doing interviews on other shows, and you only have four days a month, you're interviewing other people for your show, and you have 25 days per month to do essentially whatever you wanna do, and you're making multiple million dollars a year.
Now, that's my story right now, and it took me years to get here, but let me tell you, it was worth it.
Rob: Yeah, that is awesome. And that's so powerful. I don't know how many times, and I don't know if you're the, you're probably not the one who came up with the focus, follow one course until success, but I've quoted you, every time I say it. I say, this is where I've heard this from, is John.
John.
John: Yes.
Rob: He's known for this. So I absolutely love that. And it is, it is, it's really focusing until you get the success.
Melissa: That was your problem forever. Like how many different things can we think about and do and you're so excited about all the different things and then nothing.
Rob: Cause it's fun for an entrepreneur.
It's fun. It is fun to think of new ideas. But we're horrible about the follow through and yet you summed it up right there with focus. So I absolutely love it. Such amazing advice.
Melissa: I have a question of, have you always been structured? Cause you're a very like structured person and that it's kind of how you do your day, but is that come natural to you or is it something you've learned?
And if somebody is very all over the place, how do they learn that?
John: Listen, it, it, it did come from time. It was not something I was born with. It wasn't something that I was as a child. I was, you know, as haphazard and all over the place. Most kids are for sure. But, you know, when I got into the Army, it was really, it kind of became a life or death thing and that, that's actually not being dramatic.
Because when I was in the Army, I went to war for 13 months in Iraq. I was a tank platoon leader in charge of 16 men, four tanks, getting shot at every single day. It's like if you weren't disciplined, if you weren't focused, like if you weren't really, you know, making sure of the details, like you were putting yourself and your soldiers at risk.
So I was forced to do that and then I saw the benefits of it. And I can remember when, you know, years and years later when I became an entrepreneur and I remember just like putting those same practices that I learned in the military to entrepreneurship cause it was so obvious and everybody was like, what are you doing?
Like this is revolutionary. And I'm like, actually it's just kind of common sense to me cuz it's what I've been doing for a long time cuz of my military training, but nobody was doing in the entrepreneurial world cause they hadn't had that background. And so it put me leaps and bounds ahead of people, because I had learned that at a young age, 21, 22, 23 years old, you know, literally under fire, so to speak.
So, t can be learned. I learned it, and it's a step by step process at a time. I actually will give a, you know, a shameless plug, the Mastery Journal. The Mastery Journal right here is all about mastering productivity, discipline, and focus, and I love the fact that's within arm's reach for you. Cause I mean, obviously it's something that you excel in, but you know that you can only improve cuz you know, all we can do is improve.
And it's just so exciting that if you wanna master productivity, master discipline, and master focus, that is a journal that will help get you there in a hundred days.
Melissa: Yes. Awesome.
Rob: I totally love it. I love it. Yeah, John, we definitely wanna be respectful of your time. Thank you for jumping on here and doing this.
Where can people find out more about you? You, you know, you've talked about your podcast and all that. Where can people go to find more about you and follow you more?
John: EOFire.com is the headquarters. I got some free courses for entrepreneurs. Our income reports there. We've been publishing those for 108 months, giving you all the details of what's working and what's not in our business, in our industry.
And of course, like you said, the podcast, Entrepreneurs On Fire. I'd love a listen. And I'd love to know what the rest of your shirt says.
A year from now, you'll wish you started today.
Yes. Great way to end.
Rob: That's it. John, thank you so much. We, we absolutely love talking to you. Love the information, the amazing information that you brought.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. We greatly appreciate it.
Melissa: Help some people with it.
John: Thank you so much. Always great to hang out with both of you.
Melissa: Thank you.
Rob: Awesome.