John Lee Dumas is a goal machine. I took about a thousand notes during this fun interview and so will you. If you want an encouraging, practical story from someone who built a whole new life, brick by brick, this is the one for you.
John's new book The Common Path to Uncommon Success is available for pre-order. You can also find out more at the Entrepreneurs on Fire website.
Follow Jon on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
Order Soundtracks, Jon's newest book available wherever you find quality books!
John Lee Dumas is a goal machine. I took about a thousand notes during this fun interview and so will you. If you want an encouraging, practical story from someone who built a whole new life, brick by brick, this is the one for you.
John's new book The Common Path to Uncommon Success is available for pre-order. You can also find out more at the Entrepreneurs on Fire website.
Follow Jon on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
Order Soundtracks, Jon's newest book available wherever you find quality books!
Hey everyone, and welcome to the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast. I'm your host, Jon Acuff and I love goals. Why? Because a goal is the fastest path between where you are today and where do you want to be tomorrow. And best of all, finishing a goal feels amazing. You'll never forget what it felt like to walk across the stage and have a dean hand you a diploma you've dreamed about for years. You will never forget how good it felt to walk around your entire neighborhood without getting winded. You will never forget how good it felt to walk to the mailbox without worrying about bills because you paid them all. That's why restaurants have their first dollar bill framed behind the cash register. It's not about the amount of money. It's about what that money means. It means they did it! They finished! That's the best feeling in the world. I want that feeling for you. I want you to have that moment. I want to help you cross the finish line of whatever goal you care about, because the future belongs to finishers. That's why I'm doing this podcast. In today's episode, I'll be interviewing John Lee Dumas. This dude is a machine when it comes to goals. And I spent most of the interview taking notes on the stuff he was saying. Before we jump into the interview, today's episode is sponsored by Medi-Share. Have you guys ever had buyer's remorse? You know that feeling of intense regret because the thing you thought you just had to have was only something used once or twice? For me it was the time I bought a really expensive road bike because I thought I was going to get into cycling. I proceeded to hang it on the wall in my garage and feel ashamed for six months. Well, I know some of you are experiencing buyer's remorse right now for something much more frustrating. You know what I'm talking about. It's the healthcare you rushed to get during open enrollment last December. Well, I have some good news for you. You've probably heard me talking about our main sponsor for this podcast, Medi-Share. And these guys have the answer to healthcare buyer's remorse. Check this out, members of Medi-Share save up to 50% or more per month on their health care costs. They say the typical family saves up to $500 per month. And here's the best part, you can become a member at any time. So that means it isn't too late to ditch your buyer's remorse and switch to a more affordable health care that will save you money and help you sleep better at night. If this is your first time you're hearing about Medi-Share, it is the best alternative to health insurance that allows you to share the burden of medical bills, offers access to 900,000 plus health care providers, and has a proven 25 year track record. Plus in addition to saving hundreds per month, as a member of Medi-Share, you will also have access to free telehealth and free telecounseling. You won't find that with any traditional health insurance provider. Guys, it only takes two minutes to see how much you could save. Go investigate that for yourself and your family at Medi-Share.com/Jon. That's Medi-Share.com/Jon. Remember Jon doesn't have an H in it. So it's a M-E-D-I, that's Medi, share, S-H-A-R-E dot com slash J-O-N. Alright, so who is John Lee Dumas? Well, here's his official bio. John Lee Dumas is the founder and host of the award winning podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire. With over 100 million listens of his 3000 plus episodes, JLD, that's what they call him, JLD has turned Entrepreneurs on Fire into a media empire that generates over a million listens every month. His first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success is available for pre-order right now with five amazing bonuses at UncommonSuccessBook.com. Let me give you that URL again because I think you're gonna want it. UncommonSuccessBook.com. I'm in the middle of his book right now and it's so practical and so tactical. I love it! Alright, get ready to take some notes. Here's my conversation with John Lee Dumas. John Lee Dumas is my guest today and he wrote a book that I absolutely love. I don't always get to say that. I sometimes have to start intros short and just go right into questions. But dude, your book is so good! Like, it almost made me mad how good it is, because it's gonna take me a long time to read it because there's so many good parts to it. So dude, first off right out of the gate. You killed it. I love your book.
John Lee Dumas:Thank you, brother coming from you that honestly means a lot. And I know if I come back on for my second book and you just jump straight to questions. I know that I failed.
Jon Acuff:Then there's trouble. There's trouble. I shouldn't have admitted that. I should not have admitted that. So my first question, were you always this motivated?
John Lee Dumas:No. I actually consider myself a fairly lazy person at most things in life. And I really do mean that. I mean, I've been called lazy by a lot of people to be honest. Because I have always been all in or all out. And there's very few things I'm all in at. When I go all in, I go all in. A daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. 3,000 interviews in nine years. That's all in. My health, my wellness, like, I'm 41 years old and I don't look or feel like it, that's because I go all in on health and wellness. Other things in my life I do not go all in on and it shows. And there's a lot of things I'm terrible at. And there's a lot of reasons in places that I'm lazy. But I pick and choose my battles, Jon.
Jon Acuff:So what are some things you're all out on? Like, in a good way, where you go, you know what, this isn't a spot for me to focus, this isn't what I'm about. What are some spots like that?
John Lee Dumas:Anything that has to do with home repair. I live in a gorgeous 5500 square foot home on the Caribbean in Puerto Rico, it's a dream house. There's always something wrong in a house that size. I do not even pick up a screwdriver. I literally have a handyman who comes to my home two times per week, I give him $20 per hour, he does all the things I do none of them. That's one example.
Jon Acuff:That's a great example. And one that's close to my heart. My wife has her Master's in construction management, and she knows it all. And I, I write books.
John Lee Dumas:And you crush it from stage, by the way. I've been privy to some of those.
Jon Acuff:Oh, thanks, man. I think a lot of people are going to be surprised who might not be familiar with your work. Right out of the gate, you jump in and talk about your 23, you're a tank commander in Iraq. Thank you for your service, first of all, but what do you learn in those moments? What comes out of those moments? You know, most people haven't been in that situation. How does that kind of put you on a path?
John Lee Dumas:You learn perspective, Jon. You learn perspective. You learn that life is short. And why do we spend all of our time energy and bandwidth quaking in our boots, cowering behind this wall of fear, which is perfectionism, and saying, "Oh, I can't launch right now, because I'm a perfectionist." That's you being a coward hiding behind a wall of fear, which, by the way, been there, been there. But not for long. Because I know life is short. I went to war with 12 men. And 4 of them did not return. Those are not great odds. And I saw what happens and how fragile life can be. And I gain perspective from that. Now, am I perfect when it comes to perspective? Of course not, I'm a human being. I acclimate to everything, just like we all acclimate. But at the end of the day, when it comes down to it, I can look back and say you know what, you're gonna suck as a podcaster, but frickin launch the thing, get it out in the world. And you know, take your lumps like a man, like a woman, if you're a woman, take your lumps and get over it. Like, get over it. Because life is short. And if you want to do anything, that's going to mean anything if you want to share your voice, your message your mission with the world, if you want to create an impact, if you want to surround yourself with the right people, get it out there. Everybody's crappy doing the first thing they did. I'm sure, Jon, let's not call you out, but let's call you out. I'm sure the first time you presented from stage you were pretty bad. I know I was terrible. I literally looked at my feet, and paced back and forth for an hour and 45 minutes. It's cringe worthy, but I got it over with and I got a little bit better the next time.
Jon Acuff:Dude, an hour 45 is an eternity. Like that's a hard first speech. Like 20 minutes feels like a long time.
John Lee Dumas:It was an hour 45. It was a solo presentation. It was just me on stage. And man, I couldn't have filled 20 minutes. And I tried to go an hour 45.
Jon Acuff:Yeah, that's, that's aggressive. I get a little sweaty, just thinking about that. One of the things you write in the book that I think a lot of people resonate with, I'm going to read back your words to you, you say "I thought becoming a lawyer would give me respect. I thought corporate finance would make me rich. I thought real estate would give me freedom and fulfillment. Wrong, wrong and wrong again." And I think a lot of people have had that moment where they've tried a variety of things, and jumped coasts. I mean, you went from Maine to San Diego. That's, those are both coasts, for people who don't know the map. And you're in that moment, how do you not get stuck in that? Because a lot of people would stay there for a year for five years for 10 years and think"I've tried everything. I don't know what to do next." How do you not get stuck in that moment?
John Lee Dumas:First off, geography's tough. Geography is really tough. I thought when I was moving to Puerto Rico that it was like a stone's throw from Florida. It's actually 1200 miles.
Jon Acuff:They were pretty deep out in the ocean.
John Lee Dumas:I'm way out in the ocean, bro. Like, I'm out here. Like I can, I can get to Africa almost as quick as I can get back to the States. That's kind of scary. But listen, this is the reality is that when I was back, you know, in 2012 and trying to make that decision that you're talking about. There was a quote in a book that literally reached out from the pages and slapped me in the face. And it was Albert Einstein quote that said, "Try not to become a person of success, but rather a person of value." And that was the thing I'm like, I have been chasing success with those things that you were just talking about. Law school, corporate finance, real estate, I was chasing what I thought was success. And I failed at every single turn. But when I read that, quote, it planted the seed for the first time in my life of like, what would it look like to become a person of value? What would that even look like? Because I haven't done anything of value. Since I served our country. As an officer the US Army, I went through six years of providing no value in this world and expecting something in return. But wow, that was such an, a quote that just, you know, backfired in my face. And I was like, what am I doing? And that planted the seed Jon, of becoming a person of value. It didn't happen overnight was like that aha moment happened that day. But I planted the seed that I said, the next thing I do, the next thing that I do, is going to be a value. And eventually, that turns to me launching the first daily podcast, interviewing entrepreneurs. And here we are talking. Nine years later. 3000 episodes later, 100 million listens later, over 1.4 million listens a month. And it's not just listens. It's a business that 90 months in a row has generated over $100,000 of net profit. And by the way, because I'm so far out in the ocean and a Puerto Rican territory here. I get to keep all the money that I make.
Jon Acuff:Yeah, I imagine that factored into the move to Puerto
John Lee Dumas:100%. Don't call me Brendan Burchard. I moved to Rico. the Caribbean because I always wanted to live here. No, you move to the Caribbean, because you want to save seven figures of taxes a year. And I don't blame you. And guess what? That's why I'm here.
Jon Acuff:Exactly. I think what's fascinating about the way you talk about money, because I do think there's a lot of people that have shyness about it, they have shame about it, there's, there's a lot of baggage that comes with that. But I think one of the most fascinating things you do, as you post your monthly income on your website, EOFire.com. It's one of your most highly down, you know, viewed pages. How did that happen?
John Lee Dumas:Back in 2011, I had this thought in my mind. Again, I came from an officer in the US Army, tried law school, corporate finance, I was like, you know, very traditional in my career up to that point. I thought people that made money online, were slimy, scammy people. That's what I thought. I was wrong. But that was what I honestly thought. And then I came across this guy, Pat Flynn. And he was publishing a monthly income report. And he was a nice guy. And he was being transparent, open and honest. He was a family man, he was giving real value in the world and actually making money. And that inspired me. That shift in my mindset of like, oh, maybe you can be a good person and be a respectable person and give value in the world and actually make a living online. Again, this was 2011, I just I had the wrong mindset, I didn't know. And that opened my eyes up. And I remember making a pledge and saying, Man, if I ever, ever get to a point where I'm generating revenue online, I want to give the same kind of inspiration, and the same kind of motivation, and the same kind of transparency and honesty the path has given to me right now. And so it didn't happen overnight, because when I launched my business, I didn't make basically any money for a year. But when I finally started generating revenue, I was like, now's the time to fulfill on that promise. And I've been publishing a monthly income report every month for 90 months. I bring my lawyer on for a legal tip, I bring my accountant on for a tax tip. We make them very valuable. And guess what? I get there's a lot of issues that people have around money. I understand that. And guess what? I'm a believer, believe me, that money can't buy happiness. And I have a lot of money, so I know. If that statement was true, I would know it. But I also know one thing, not having money, and the lack of money makes it really hard to truly be happy as well. So there's some things that go along there when it comes to generating revenue. I'm a big believer in it allows you to amplify your message. It allows you to support the causes you like to be a philanthropist. I've written hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks to my favorite causes. And I would challenge anybody to hand a blank check to a cause that you believe in and tell me that doesn't provide you with happiness. And most people can't answer that question because they can't do it. But those people who have achieved real financial freedom can and man it's a good feeling.
Jon Acuff:Yeah, I love it. That to me, that page is really inspiring. And it seems like you've got a great history of whether it's a quote from Albert Einstein, Pat Flynn inspiring you, other books. If you had to say, here's my Mount Rushmore of self-help books or business books, motivational books, the category you and I live in, who's on your Mount Rushmore? What titles are on your Mount Rushmore?
John Lee Dumas:I'll start with the obvious because it is true. And then I'll go to a couple more most people may not have heard of as much. But Think And Grow Rich. I mean, that is where it started. When I saw what Napoleon Hill did by going around physically back in the day, and interviewing all the world's most successful, smart, and amazing entrepreneurs and businessmen and women. I said, Wow, like I can do that from the comfort of my own home. I mean, here I am Puerto Rico, you know, in my studio like getting to talk to Jon Acuff? Like hello, like this is amazing. And I've been able to do the same things with Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk, you know, Tony Robbins, fill in the blank, like, it's been unbelievable that we can do that as like a modern day Napoleon Hill. We all can do that on some levels. And another one that I want to share that, you know, really just hit me in a great way and kept me going, is a book called The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson, not a lot of people have read that book.
Jon Acuff:It's so good!
John Lee Dumas:It's so good! It's so good. And a lot of people don't know that Jeff Olson was actually the mentor to Darren Hardy, who then after reading The Slight Edge, Darren Hardy went on and wrote The Compound Effect to build off of those principles. And just to sum it up real quick, and the reason why I love it so much, and why it helped me so much is it just hammers home the principle that just doing the small things, right, every single day, the small things, ends up giving us so much massive compound of success over time, because truly, the eighth wonder of the world is compounding. It's just a fact. And so for me, doing a daily podcast for six months in a row, not really having a ton of listeners, you know, sometimes feeling I'm speaking to an empty room, not making any money. Most people give up at that point. Most people do give up, but that book taught me the fact, hey, patience, persistence, perseverance, just do the little things right every day, just a little things that every day, they will add up to massive things. And now because of that book, 100 million listens has compounded over the past nine plus years on this podcast,
Jon Acuff:Is there a guest you still haven't interviewed like your white whale? Like who's the, who's still out there that you're like, "Okay, we're working our way up to..." You know, is there somebody that's on your shortlist of, "I'm really trying to get them to be on the podcast."
John Lee Dumas:No, there's really not. Honestly. I'm a big believer that the right people find their way to my show. And I really live in that world. Because there was a time for years that I had to bust my butt to keep up with that pretty crazy 365 interview schedule per year. And you know, that was hard work. And I reached a tipping point, at about year four, where I was getting more people asking to be on the show, qualified people, than even had spots. So I started having to actually turn people away for the very first time, and it was all inbound. And now I'm at 400 inbound requests every month minimum, sometimes much more, of people to be on my show. So obviously now it's become, you know, a much more supply and demand type of game here. And I let people find the way to me, I want people to want to be on the show. So you know, there's some people I'd love to get an email from. Hey, Barack Obama, if you want to email me and ask to be on the show to talk about your book, my answer will be yes, by the way. But I'm not gonna chase you. I'm not gonna go after you. I'm not gonna, like, go after people that are doing me a favor, or are just like, yeah, like put on the on the list. That's just not where I need to be.
Jon Acuff:Well, the connection isn't there, either. You mean, you've got a deeper connection when there's a desire on both sides?
John Lee Dumas:Yeah, the desire on both sides is huge.
Jon Acuff:Without without a doubt. I love the 17 step roadmap. There's so many practical, actionable things you can do in that. I want to pull up principle number two, which is identify an underserved niche. So really, it's a roadmap to uncommon success. 17 different steps. Every step has tremendous value, like you could do an hour on each step. But number two, I really liked because it's something I struggle with, identifying an underserved niche, and filling that void to the best of your ability. Talk to people about niches because I think there's a lot of my listeners right now that are going "I want to start a podcast, want to write a book, want to be a speaker, but I don't know what my niche is?"
John Lee Dumas:I mean, I can't believe you even thought about calling yourself an amateur. This is such a well researched, thorough interview, you're, you're just a pro brother. But listen, this is the fact. So few people will ever identify their big idea. That's step one. I'm not gonna hover on that. But I want to just set the parameters here. Most people will die, not even knowing what their big idea is. But the problem is when people actually do sit down and identify their specific big idea. They just do that thing. And guess what, there's a reason why it's a big idea, because it's a good idea, and other people are doing it and you'll get crushed by the competition. If you start there, if you start there. That's why step two is discover your niche. Your niche is that underserved place within your big idea. It's that void in the big idea that's not currently being filled by your competition. That's your opening. That is where you can win. Like Jon, back in 2012. My big idea was a podcast that's broad and vague. That idea would fail. But what about a business podcast? That's one niche down. Okay. There's a lot of competition there. What about a podcast that's in the business section that interviews entrepreneurs? Well, guess what, Jon, there were seven shows that fit that category. Did I want to launch the eighth best show? Of course not. So what did I have to do? I had to niche down again, what was the void in the marketplace? Every one of those shows was once per week. That was what they were doing. What if I 10 Xed their quantity? Because I sure as heck know my quality is not going to be there. Because I was going to be the worst. I was going to be the eighth of eight interview shows, if I did that, once a week, I went down to seven days per week, I niche down until it flipping hurts. And I owned that niche. And guess what? The day I launched Entrepreneurs On Fire, it was the best daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. It was the worst daily podcast, interviewing entrepreneurs. It was the only daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. And the big takeaway here is, the higher the barrier, the lower the competition, I set a barrier so high in this niche, that I didn't just have low competition, I had no competition because nobody was willing to put in the work to do a daily podcast because it had never been proven. They didn't know how I was gonna make money. I didn't know how I was gonna make money. And I didn't for a year. Not many people can do that. But I built a moat around my business by being the best and the only in my niche. My first mover advantage was real, and I won as a result. So how, within your niche, can you be the best solution to a real problem? If you can't answer that question with full confidence, you're not niche enough.
Jon Acuff:I like that you talk about, you know, niching until it hurts, because it does. I think where a lot of people leave out the bravery going into a niche takes because you're afraid "I'm going to lose audience and lose opportunity." Talk about bravery and being willing to commit to a niche.
John Lee Dumas:It does take courage. It does take courage, because guess what? You want to resonate with everybody, because when you resonate with everybody, then guess what? Anybody can buy your stuff. Anybody can be in your audience. You're resonating with everybody, the 9 billion people in this world. But when you try to resonate with everybody, you will resonate with nobody. You will be a little girl, screaming into the winds, and nobody's gonna hear you and nobody's gonna care. We live in a very chaotic, loud, crazy world. And if you think you just being this 374th best solution to a real problem is going to work. You're wrong. You like what Jon Acuff is doing? You want to be the success that he is? So you launch a weak, pale imitation of Jon Acuff, and then you wonder why you're losing? Or you do a daily interview show and you wonder why you're losing? Like, hello, you need to find your big idea, your zone of fire, your specific niche that you're serving better than anybody else, not 10 times worse than everybody else. That's how you win.
Jon Acuff:So to that point, you strike me as very deliberate about focus. You focus on all in, all not. We talked about at the beginning.
John Lee Dumas:Yeah.
Jon Acuff:So like, take YouTube, for instance. You could theoretically have somebody come in and say, "You know what? You could have a huge YouTube presence. You need to go invest in, like, you need to go hardcore YouTube, but you haven't." You have a presence.
John Lee Dumas:Apparently.
Jon Acuff:Yeah, same with me. But like, how do you hold the line? Because I know that people come around you and go, "Hey, you're really good at this one area. Here's seven other areas you should be in. And if you're" and then they go like,"and if you're not in there, you're missing something." Like how do you stay focused on like,"No, this is my lane. This is what I'm doing. Yeah, I could be in 50 Like, I could be doing 50 things on Clubhouse right now. This is what I do." So tell me how you say no to that stuff.
John Lee Dumas:I'm committed to being the best daily podcast, interviewing entrepreneurs. Anything that distracts me from that focus is a waste of my time. So listen, will I repurpose my interviews on YouTube that just has like my logo with the audio? Sure. But at the same time, that takes me absolutely no time or effort. And guess what? It's also crap because people don't go to YouTube to stare at a logo and hear two people talking. Like they go there for videos. They don't go there for just audio only content. That's why I don't put any focus there. Like I don't care what you do to my YouTube channel, it's not going to become good. Like it's not going to. Like there are reasons why the top YouTube channels are the top YouTube channels, because they're entertaining to watch. They're entertaining. Casey Neistat is entertaining to watch. That's why he's winning at a massive level on YouTube and other channels like that for video. I know where I thrive, I know where my audience, Fire Nation, which is step three, my avatar. I know where my perfect listener listens to my podcasts, when they're driving in their car to work, when they're going on a jog, when they're at the gym, when they're walking their dog, when they're folding laundry, when they're doing dishes. When they're doing things that they can't be visually seeing something, they're gonna have the best audio quality interview that I can possibly provide with a successful entrepreneur to listen to. That's how I built my audience, brick by brick, focus by focus and I don't go out of my lane. I stay there and everything I do is a direct relation to that. And real quick, the biggest question I get by far, "John, how do you grow your podcast audience?" By becoming a better podcaster. By actually creating a better podcast. By honing your skills. By working at your craft. You know, not by trying to figure out this ad sequence or this drip sequence of this ever webinar or this or that. No. How about you actually work at the thing you're trying to become the best at or trying to stay the best at? How about you actually put in the work put in the reps? So what do I do? I'm on 20 other podcasts every month, because I know one truth. Podcast listeners listen to podcasts. And when I go on other podcasts, and I drop value bombs, and by the way, I work on honing my craft, because I'm practicing and I'm doing the work and I'm sharing value. I end with a single call to action. Hey, if you think you got value today, from me being on the show, maybe you want to check on my podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire because I know that you as a podcast listener, listen to podcasts. And I know you listen to an average of seven podcasts. I just want to become one of your seven. Check out EOFire.com/EOF. You can subscribe to your favorite directory to Entrepreneurs on Fire. I would love to prove myself as one of your seven. Thank you.
Jon Acuff:Come on, dude, that's ridiculous. Gosh, I think this could be like a 10 hour like it makes me mad. I don't live in Puerto Rico. I feel like we could have a long, long conversation. That is, that is so good. So of the 17 steps, what do you think is going to be the one that's hardest for people? like where are you going to have people go? "Whoa, wait a second. But what about?" Or like where are you going to get questions, the most questions from the 17?
John Lee Dumas:There's not a close second to your question. You know, there's
Jon Acuff:Blowout.
John Lee Dumas:It's a blowout. It's a slaughter. It's not even I mean, again, it's not even a close second. You're an author, brother, you know what it takes to write a book. This book is 71,000 words. It's 273 pages. It's not short, it's meaty. Average chapter, three to 5000 words. I was doing two hours of writing every day for eight months, 480 writing hours. I get to this specific step and I'm writing and I'm writing. The next day I'm writing. The next week, I'm still writing. I finished this step. 13,500 words, this one step this one chapter. And I stepped back and I said, man, there's a few reasons why I've had the success that I've had. Why I have over 100 million listens, why I have 90 months in a row of a net profit, not gross, net profit of over $100,000, sometimes much more. There's a reason why I've had all this success. And now I've never seen it more clearly than this specific step. Step seven, chapter seven, Creating a Content Production Plan. That is the reason why I've won at such a high level. That is the reason why I've been able to create a daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs, over 3000 episodes in nine years, and nobody else has been able to touch that because my content production plan. And I'm talking to you, everybody that's listening right now, not you, Jon, everybody else. My content production plan is so much better than yours. But I must say I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just being honest. It is so much better than yours. And yours can get better! Because mine sucked and yours can improve. Because I've improved mine over the years. A decade now it's taken me to get to this razor sharp, unbelievable, fantastic content production plan. It's amazing. And I give it all away. In step seven, chapter seven, Creating a Content Production Plan. It is 13,500 words. 1% of you listening to my voice will actually read it. 1% of that 1% will actually implement it and those people will win.
Jon Acuff:Well, and see this is why I'm genuine when I say I love your book, because there's parts of my business that it's exposing, as I read it. That I go "Oh, yeah." Cuz like I had a
John Lee Dumas:Mine too! As I wrote it. It was exposing my business.
Jon Acuff:Well, it's just a reminded me I had a business coach review what I was doing a couple years ago, and we had a meeting to talk about it. And she, the first thing she said was, " "Jon, you're what I call accidentally successful. And that is not a compliment." And so there were parts of my business where are skating on personality, charisma, the ability to tell a joke, but I didn't have systems behind it. Again, when I say I'm excited about this book, that's why I'm excited about this book.
John Lee Dumas:It's such a great point you just made. And this is how you need to, to approach this book is you look at the table of contents right there in front of you at the 17 steps. The people that do it wrong are going to say, "I missed step seven, chapter seven, I'm going to jump right there and go forward." No, you start at step one, chapter one, and three things are going to happen at every step in this process. Either one, you're going to be like, "Okay, I just confirmed that I've crushed this," and you move on to,"Okay, there were some tweaks and adjustments and some pivots I had to make but now I've crushed it. Now I can move on," or three, "Holy crap, wipe the slate clean. Now let's go forward, finally the right way." You can have one of those three options at every step in the process and then you catch up to where you're at. Now you have an amazing nine steps behind you. And now you move forward through step 17. And that's the roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment.
Jon Acuff:And I'm telling you, if you do the steps, this stuff works. This stuff works. I've seen you do it. I mean, we've known each other for years, and I've watched you do it. And when I read this book, I could see other people in my audience that we're going to be able to say,"Oh, passion versus expertise. Okay, here's what I need to do." Or, you know, "Here's an actionable step." So I only have two questions left, because I know we're running out of time. One, walk us there's no answer to "average day". People ask me that question. But I think we're always curious about like, what's the day look like? Like, this is a book launch window, so it's different.
John Lee Dumas:Different.
Jon Acuff:But like, in, you know, it's September of 2021, what's your, what's your Monday look like? What are some things that you're always trying to do?
John Lee Dumas:So one thing that I have is a process that I call "batching like a baller." It's been the reason why my content production plan has been such beast mode from day one. Again, it's improved over time. It wasn't always awesome, but it was still beast mode, day one, where I have days that I just batch my face off. Like Jon, you are my 11th of 12 interviews today. I do it. This is my zone of fire. I can do this. I actually get better and more energized and more excited and sharper each interview that I do, because this is my zone of fire. I'm an extrovert I love having these conversations. What am I gonna do, be on my hammock right now like sipping a Mai Tai? That's not where I want to be. This is where I want to be right here. So I found my zone of fire. This is what I do. I batch like a baller, these are my strengths. This is what you need to do is you need to find what your strengths are in your content production plan, and batch them. So you get in the zone, and you just crush it you just make it happen. This is typical. So this is not a book promotion window. I have five days per month that I'm absolutely crushed. Meaning it's morning to night, I have interview after interview for my show Entrepreneurs on Fire, or interview after interview for other shows, or one of the other things I have planned, meetings for my business, every single block back to back. Five days per month. And I plan for those days. And I know those days I need to be all in, all on. The other 25 days per month. I am in pure cruise mode. Now I'm getting up. I'm working out. I'm exercising, I'm getting to inbox zero. I'm doing a little bit of this on social media, a little bit of that. But that's it I have themed my days to five days a month where I am crushing it 25 days per month where I'm literally just in pure maintenance mode couple, two, maybe three hours max a day. And that's it. And that's where I'm at in my business. And guess what, look at my income reports. I have essentially been plateaued at about between $2-3 million a year, for eight years now. And there are people, rightfully so, they'll look at me and say, "John, your business hasn't grown, like you've been flatlined." And I'm like, because I found exactly where I want to be. I've got three virtual assistants in the Philippines, who are unbelievably well-trained. My total salary is less than$4,000. For them combined per month. It's myself and Kate, three virtual assistants, I work essentially five days all out per month, the other days are just a little bit. And then I get to live my life exactly how I want to. Could I get to $10 million. Literally, I know exactly how I can get to $10 million. Hire 10, 15, 20 more people. Increase my ad spend 100x because my ad spend is essentially nothing right now. Work every single day instead of five days per month, do a bunch of other things. And I'd get to$10 million. Guess what? I live in Puerto Rico. I'm netting$100,000 per month after taxes because I barely pay any taxes. I am exactly where I want to be financially, business-wise, workwise I found out what my financial freedom is. I found out what my fulfillment is. I found out what my uncommon success is. And that's what this book gets you. It doesn't get you to $10 million. It doesn't get you to $100 million. It gets you there if that's what you want. And that's your process. But it gets you first off to say"Okay, what do I want? How much do I want to work? How much do I want to play?" Kate and I go on a 75 day unplugged European vacation every single year. We did 15 countries the year before last, of course before 2020 and the six years prior, by the way. Six years, sorry, seven years in a row. Gone 75 days. In fact, the last year was actually 90 days because we started off with our Tony Robbins retreat out in Namale in Fiji to kick us off. 90 days we were gone. 75 is our sweet spot. But that's the business that I built by choice.
Jon Acuff:Yeah, so it's so unfair that I said I have two last questions and then I feel like you did an entire new book that I have 50 other questions. So we're gonna have to do another interview.
John Lee Dumas:Yes, I'm in!
Jon Acuff:That is because I'm just a fan. I love watching you do what you do. And last question, where can people go to find out more? So there's five amazing bonuses. This is me saying I believe in the book, I love the book, all I have is a digital copy. So as soon as this is over, I'm emailing one of those three assistants and saying, please send me a real copy because I want the one he's holding in his hand. Where can people go for more about this?
John Lee Dumas:Boom, brother! Hit me up with that email, we're gonna send you a hardcover out because they're just being released tomorrow, actually. So you'll be first on that list for sure. This is what I want to say. This book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success is that culmination, not of this brain, not of my journey, of the 3000 interviews that I've done with the world's most successful entrepreneurs. Me learning as a mentee. They were my mentors, learning from all of them every single time I got them on the microphone. This is the download of those 1000s of hours of conversations, boiling it down to right in front of me seeing the 17 foundational principles that every single entrepreneur that has had success, specifically uncommon success, has in common. Me putting that in a chronological, step-by-step format, and then writing for 480 hours, 71,000 words with HarperCollins' leadership. An amazing traditional publisher behind me with the team to edit this, to make it beautiful, to make it wonderful, to make it what it is right now. But I wrote every single one of these words from my experience. And I don't just want you, you know, to just drop the $25 and get this book. Like I want you to do that. But I want to make it a no brainer for you. So I have five insane bonuses. I won't go into details of all five, but just one of them. I'm literally shipping all three of my journals, the freedom, mastery, and podcast journal, to your door. I'm losing money on every pre-order. Not the point. It's not what I'm trying to do here. I'm not trying to make this a financial win for me. I'm trying to make this a gift to anybody who wants their version of uncommon success. This book has been personally endorsed by Gary Vaynerchuk, Seth Godin, Neil Patel, Erica Mandy, Dorie Clark. I give you the first chapter at this URL. And there's a video of me as well explaining more details about it. UncommonSuccessBook.com.
Jon Acuff:Awesome. Awesome. Well, I encourage everyone to go pick up a copy. Hopefully the honest enthusiasm for me about it has come through. I'm a fan. I can't wait to eventually get back to Puerto Rico and be able to experience the full Puerto Rico experience with you. But this has been a blast. Thank you so much for doing this. I've absolutely loved it.
John Lee Dumas:Thanks, brother.
Jon Acuff:See ya. This episode of the podcast was brought to you by Medi-Share. Text JON, J-O-N to 474747 for more information. Huge thank you to Medi-Share for sponsoring it. J-O-N to 474747.
Producer:Thanks for listening. To learn more about the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast and to get access to today's show notes, transcript, and exclusive content from Jon Acuff, visit Acuff.me/podcast. Thanks again for joining us. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode of the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast.