The Ultimate Transformation w/ John Lee Dumas

We love the comfort zone. You know, the comfort zone, you're warm, you're well fed, you're protected. There's love there. The comfort zone is a great area. And as human beings, man, like, a lot of us strive to be there because, like, that's what innately, like, we're being pushed to do. But guess what? Like, the comfort zone is not where the magic happens. The magic happens outside of your comfort zone.

Own your future. Because if you don't, someone else will. Welcome back to the Own youn Future podcast. I'm so excited for the guest today because he has become a dear friend over the last five years or so and we haven't caught up in a while since then. He's got married. I heard he's having a baby. He lives in paradise. But more than that, our guest today has an award winning podcast called Entrepreneurs on Fire. And before I bring out Mr. John Lee Dumas, better known as JLD, I want to make sure you have reserved your spot to the Own youn Future, you challenge. Yes. This is the podcast. This is the challenge. August 1st, five days, completely free, about two hours a day with myself, Mr. Tony Robbins, and some of the best guests on the planet to show you how to truly own your future. In today's shifting world, we are pulling back the curtain in a way we never have before. So reserve your spot. Oyf20023.com When Tony Robbins and I decided to launch a product and of course, a new venture for us through mastermind.com, our company that we own, John Lee Dumas was one of the first people that stepped up and said, how can I help? You and Tony are doing it. How can I go all in? And he did. For several years in a row. He helped us reach millions of people around the world. It's an honor and a privilege to be here with my dear friend, John Lee Dumas. How you doing, brother Dean?

I'm doing great. From Fiji to Arizona to Florida, whenever we get to hang out in person, it's always fantastic. And, you know, sometimes life is kind of crazy. So these virtual hangouts are all we have and I'm looking forward to it.

Well, today I'd love to talk about some cool stuff of how you transitioned from being the army and different careers that you were thinking of going down. And one day you just quit it all and said, hey, I'm going to serve. I'm going to make an impact. I want to do something different. I want to hear about that transition of so many people are going to be listening today saying, I'm dying to do my own thing. Can I really make a living by helping other people or interviewing 3,800 different entrepreneurs or writing a book or doing a workshop? And can I market through service and all those cool things? I'd love to touch on that. But before we get started, I just got to ask you, how's it being married and expecting a baby on the way?

It's the next stage in life. And, you know, Kate and I have been together for 12 years. We tied the knots just a little over a year ago. So we definitely took our time there as we were focused on the business and making sure that, you know, everything was great on our relationship level as well. And it just made all the sense in the world as well to start trying this January, which was always our kind of focus and our goal. And lucky for us, it did happen right away. So we got little baby JLD coming on 11 11, and it's officially going to be a boy. So I got my work cut out for me.

Yeah, it's so great. I'm on number four now, so I get it. Believe me, I understand. Listen, I love to see the smile on your face. You always light me up, man. And you have. You have such a good energy. Like I said, like you said, we got to hang out in Fiji, we hung out in Florida. And you always bring up the room and you bringing up the room and you always having a smile on your face and you always looking through the lens of positivity doesn't mean you didn't also deal with crap in your life. Right. Doing tours in Iraq. And only from our friendship, I know you went through some trauma and some PTSD and how to deal with that as well. And I'd love to share that a little bit today because we're all dealing with some stuff in the Invisible, aren't we? You? Come on. I've been on multiple. Every time I'm on your podcast, you bring fire. You do. It's the perfect name. It's the perfect name for your podcast and make sure you're seeing entrepreneurs on fire. Make sure you go, listen to this guy. He brings such fire and such great capabilities. But when you see you, and I'm going to ask some of these questions out of order, but when I see you, I would say that guy's got it all going on. He doesn't have to deal with anything. And I would love. Maybe we start off today different than usual is what are some of the things that you deal with? When nobody's watching in the invisible or you've dealt with in the past, but you found a way to use them as your fuel, not your anchor.

It's a great question because it does happen to all of us. And so many times, you know, for us as individuals who are looking up to those that we admire, we think they have it all together and that their life is perfect. And just if I get to that level, then my life will be perfect as well. And that's just never the case. And you did allude to it a little bit earlier. You know, for myself, you know, I grew up in a very small town in Maine. I went to college on an army scholarship. I graduated and was immediately commissioned as an officer in the U.S. army. I spent my time, did a tour of duty in Iraq, got out of the military, tried corporate finance, law school, all these things. So I was on this, like, very traditional path. And you know, my dad was a lawyer, so I thought that was going to be my path as well. And this whole world of entrepreneurship was, was not really there for me. But when I did identify the fact that I loved entrepreneurship, I loved the journey, I loved the person just saying, hey, I've got a great idea. I'm going to make it happen. I'm going to do this. Like, that was me. And I charged straight away. But the reality is going to your specific question on, you know, the invisible thing that, you know, kind of is there with all of us at some level. For me, I mean, being a officer in the US army, specifically during war, during my 13 month tour of duty in Iraq, of of the 16 soldiers that I was in command of. So I was a tank commander in charge of four tanks and 16 men in Iraq during my tour of duty. And four of them made the ultimate sacrifice. And that was just in my immediate platoon and of course in my company and battalion, many, many more people, you know, from 18 years old, you know, up to their 40s, you know, were experiencing the same exact thing. And it was so, so hard for me as a young man to deal with this. But it was really that stage in my life that I realized that it can all be gone like that. And that's really the answer to your question about with me right now, like, here I am at 43 years old, married, you know, to a woman that's been my business and life partner for 12 years now, about to have a child in November, you know, and having a business that's, you know, netting me millions of dollars a year, a huge platform and all the things that, you know, I could have dreamed for. I'm still very aware of just that snap of the fingers that it can all be taken away. You know, every time, you know, Kate leaves to drive to the grocery store, I'm like, kate, drive carefully. Because I know that's, you know, I've had friends and we all have, you.

Know, I don't want to interrupt. I want to, I want to continue to hear this because I think this is so crucially important. You've interviewed 3,800 entrepreneurs. You have multiple friends, and I think friends that are very successful. I should finish that. And I think one of the things that I've seen help people is when they realize they're not alone with that invisible. You worrying about, about Kate driving to the store, you being very structured. You probably afraid someone can take it all away from you is all a byproduct of probably what you dealt with being in Iraq, losing four personally close to you. And that's never going to go away. But you had to find a way to dance with it, to use it as power. Some days it probably isn't. There's probably still days with your great smile that you wake up and you're choosing to let your actions dictate your mindset rather than your mindset to dictate your actions. I'm sure there's mornings that John Lee Dumas wakes up and it's not the perfect day and there's questioning yourself and there's self doubt and what if this happens and what if that happens? And God forbid and going, I'm sure you have that. You've just found a way to have more positive than negative, to use that as fuel, not your anchor. And I just as you say that, I could picture you saying to your wife, please be careful because. And you had someone in a tank near you that probably went out and never came back. So what are some of the things that you've done jld to. To help turn. That could be pain, could be. You listen, you could have every excuse in the world, man. You, you made a sacrifice and the people in your platoon made the ultimate sacrifice. You could have every excuse in the world to go, man, you don't know what happened to me. If you went through what I went through, you'd realize why I just, you know, I just drive an Uber. I don't have to worry about responsibility. I got nobody in my life that's going to get sick or hurt anymore or die. You would have all the reason and be okay if somebody heard Your story, they'd go, I understand why he's not going after his dreams. After interviewing 3,800 people, you've got to see patterns in others and yourself. What are some of the things that someone could use today to go, hey, I could take my past and shift it.

I use it. I use that past in a very powerful way. Because I say, listen, I've seen that can all be taken away in an instance, Literally in an instance. So that every present moment that I have, I know that moment is a gift. And it also helps with perspective and so many other things as well. Like, we're always going to get an email throughout the day or the week that's, like, very negative for our business. Like, it's going to be a sponsor pulling out or this person canceling or this client or customer complaining. Like, there's always things. And I've seen so many entrepreneurs let those type of things take them down. And for me, I'm just like, hey, that's a person that made a decision that had no, you know, that was not based on exactly what I was doing, because I was doing my best for that individual. And I'm not gonna let that take me down. I'm gonna say, hey, things could be so much worse. I could have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq back in 2003, 2004, you know, I could have had somebody who, you know, is a huge part of my life, you know, suddenly come down with terminal cancer or some kind of thing. So I think about, like, the things that really, really matter in life, so that when, you know, the curveballs come at us, in a business sense, which are always going to happen to us, I can keep those things in perspective. I can live in the moment. I can be happy about where I'm at, what I'm doing, having this conversation with you. Like, this is exactly where I want to be right now. And I'm just living in this moment, not stressed about anything else. And I know that when those bad things happen in our businesses, which are always going to happen, man, things could be so, so much worse. So it's perspective, and then it's just also, the joy of the present isn't perspective.

Again, I got some other questions for you, but I've been geeking out on perspective more. You know, you go in little waves. I've been thinking of this as growing the companies, growing your company, growing my company. I'm working with Tony's company and growing it, my own company. And we just did a big old thing with Matthew McConaughey and we're growing that arm of our company as well. And what I shared with my team this week is perspective and protection. Meaning sometimes when you get to a certain growth or you evolve to a certain level and you're still looking out to that next level, to that next thing, when you go to move, if you find yourself protecting this system, I'm in customer service, and this is the way I do it, or this is the way I handle my workout, or this is the way I handle my relationship. This way I handle growth. Sometimes we protect the thing that got us out of Egypt, but it's not the thing that can take us to the promised land. And we kind of got to let go of the protection of what got us here and look through a new set of glasses at the perspective. Is something questioning, meaning, mean that I should get mad or offended, or can I look into this as growth? Right. Sometimes you have a. We have leaders on our team that I'm challenging to grow, and I find them get really protective. I've done the same thing. I do it with my partnership with Tony. He's always stretching me, and sometimes like, no, no, no, this is the way I do it. And I'm like, oh, I'm pretty protecting. I must need a new perspective. And I've been. I've been using that. So for the last two weeks more than ever, when. When something feels like it's challenging me or maybe my ego or something that I think I've mastered, I immediately go, oh, if I'm feeling this way, I might need a new perspective. So I'm so glad you brought that up, because it's. We can look through a different set of glasses at every circumstance.

For me, it's all about the comfort zone. Like, I get why, as human beings, we love the comfort zone. You know, the comfort zone, you're warm, you're well fed, you're protected. There's love there. The comfort zone's a great area. And as human beings, man, like, a lot of us strive to be there because, like, that's what innately, like, we're being pushed to do. But guess what? Like, the comfort zone is not where the magic happens. The magic happens outside of your comfort zone. And that's why there's only going to be so many people that accomplish their dreams, that achieve those dreams, that really get out there and make massive impact. There's going to be people that kind of plot along and live a life. And at the end of the life and look like, you know, I lived a good Life or man, I have regret from the life that I live. Like, there's going to be all ways, shapes and forms of that, but it's the people that are really like, I have this big, hairy, audacious goal. I'm going to go after it, and I might fail, but guess what? I'm going to learn so much in that failure. I'm going to know that I can always hit that reset button. Because I live, you know, in a place where I can hit that reset button and try and try again and go for the gold. And if it works, fantastic. If it doesn't, it won't. But guess what? All of those individuals are outside of that comfort zone, are trying new things, are scared, but are doing things like you and I have done over the years, and we're doing even right now. We're surrounding ourselves with the right people, other people that have those big, scary, hairy, audacious goals, and we're going to support each other through it. And now that I've been interviewing people, Dean, for ten and a half years, over 3,800 successful entrepreneurs, literally seven days a week. I had people on in 2013 and 2014, where you heard their interview, you thought that they were on top of the world and they would remain there forever. And then, man, I would interview them five years later, and they had crashed from that mountain peak, Completely lost it all, were decimated. But then they built something amazing up and sometimes even greater impressions.

Wow. You have so much history.

So much history.

Yeah, I didn't even think about that. And it's good to see that journey because the mindset will keep you going. Because, hey, you know, you probably see this now when you're in it, and I really. Everybody listening right now. I really want you to hear this. When you're in it, you think it's taking forever. When you started Entrepreneurs on Fire, first episode, 10th episode, 20th episode, you're in it for a year, JLD, and you're probably like, man, this is so much work. And it's seven days a week, right? It's like, if it's ever gonna be there. But then when you look back in a decade, you're like, damn, it only took me a year to get there, right? Isn't it. Isn't it all perspective? Because here's the thing. I know when you're in the midst of it, you know, people say to me, hey, when I get more successful, I can't wait to have less problems. I'm like, do you really know what you're saying? You don't have less, you have bigger problems. You just learn to handle bigger problems, Right? Jim Rohn always says for you to get better or for things to get better, you have to get better for problems to get easier. You don't, you don't want them to get easier, you want them to get bigger. The most successful person in every room is the person who solves the biggest problems. You just got to get better at handling them. But if you could wait, like, if I could give a gift to everyone, I'd say live in the uncomfortable, Live in. In. In the. The fear. Live in the. Have to work harder than most in the short period of time so you can get through it and realize that that comfort zone sometimes sucks us in and keeps us at a status quo. We get to you in your life and you said it earlier, it's like, how was your life? And you're like, that was all right, you know, it's cool. Kind of one thumbs up, man, if we got one shot at this. Jld, I know what I watch you go after it. I played JLD in basketball and got my butt handed to me. But man, I watch how you go after everything in life. If you go after it hard in the beginning, do the hard work, get through the uncomfortable, question yourself. When you feel like quitting, go again. And when you feel like quitting, go again. Learn from people who've already been there, then go back at it again. Because it's really. At least. I'd love to ask you this in it doesn't it seem long, but in hindsight, a decade later, you look back and realize that that foundation you built in that first year set you up for a lifetime of abundance.

That was it. I mean, during, during the first year I was in it, I was doing everything. I couldn't afford to hire a team, so I was literally doing everything. Guest outreach, blog posts, emails, website development, I mean editing, I mean trying to find sponsors. I was doing literally everything. It was taking me like 80 hours a week. I was making no money and it just felt like it was never going to end. And then month 13 things started to click. You know, I launched a course, I hired a va, I made my. I had my first hundred thousand dollar net profit month. That was in month 13 of the business. And then since then, we haven't had a month of less than $100,000 net profit since 2013. And we publish that on our monthly income reports because we love that transparency. We love showing people how we do it, what we do, and just, you know, Want to inspire other people to do that. And you know, to a lot of your other points, which are fantastic as well, it's like, listen, Jim Rohn said it, but Big Papa said it as well. I mean, mo money, mo problems, I.

Mean, that is the reality.

You need to realize if you're going to be really successful and you are really going to be making some big money, you're also going to have some big money problems, which is a great thing to have. You should be willing and ready and excited to tackle those problems in a very meaningful way. And you look at somebody like Dean, I mean, he's in fantastic shape. I'm in really good shape. And guess what? Is it because we go to the gym and we like lift up a five pound dumbbell, drop it down and walk out, that's comfortable to do that because that's not straining our bodies. No, we go in, we sweat, we pump iron, we're cardio, we're eating right, we're sleeping well as well as we can. I know Dean has four children now, but as well as we can. And I mean, listen, it's not comfortable to make all those sacrifices and to struggle like that. But because of that, our bodies are great, our health is great, you know, and then that results in our business being great so that we can take the strain of being out of our comfort zone. I mean, for me, it's sleep.

Listen, but if you don't do those things, and I didn't mean to be interrupted, but if you don't do those things, people say, well, that sounds like a lot of work to be in good shape. What's more work? That or being 65 years old and I have to say goodbye to my kids, or I can't play with my kids because I'm out of shape, or I'm in pain, or I leave this world early and leave my wife and leave my kids, what's more painful? You just got to weigh the, the, the, the. You know, when I. This morning, I climbed Camelback Mountain next to my house. And every time, every time I'm halfway up, I'm. My brain, literally to this day, JLD, my brain says, hey, man, you're 54. Maybe you shouldn't run this so hard. What if you fall? Your right knee's a little messed up. You could make it work. Maybe you're gonna burn out your adrenals. You should literally, I'm like that in my head. I'm like, do you. Can I believe this voice still exists? I've been in this industry 27 years. My partner is Tony Robbins. We talk every day, and that damn voice is still saying in my ear, hey, we should just quit. We should just quit. And every time I gotta go, you're funny. Just because you came up now, now I must do it. And I'm gonna clock myself from here on up and kick my own ass from yesterday. Right, but you have to train yourself for that. And so I appreciate you saying that. And.

And so I've got a run for you when you come visit Puerto Rico. That it's. It's no Camelback Mountain, but we'll make sure the pace.

I can't wait. And I can't wait.

You'll make it happen. You'll make it happen.

So I, you know, because I don't have any structured questions for you today, because I love this conversation of hanging out, but we are. We are in the same business right now. I started in cars and firewood and went into real estate. Then I literally bought. You call him big daddy. I bought Tony Robbins course 27, 28 years ago. And I said, damn, I could actually help people with my life experience and get paid to do it. Cha Ching. I want that. I want to serve others and create an amazing business doing it. And luckily, 27 years later, I'm here with you. And now I'm partners with Tony and just did that. 2.8 million people watched the McConaughey event day one. Imagine that. 2.8 million people watching day one. I get to do all these cool things, but it never would have happened if I didn't transition. And we're in the same business. I saw where you heard an Albert Einstein quote and you just decided you wanted to do something of value in your life. And that's what we get to do. We get to find things that allow our lives to be better, our businesses to be better, the impact to be better, our revenue to be better, and we get to share it for a living. I'd love for you to share a little bit how you. You did a little right year one, and then you went into a course. But how has that become a part of your life? And how does it feel to be in this business?

It really goes to that word that you shared, which is impact, because that's such a powerful and addicting, truly addicting. And I was gonna actually say impactful word because it really is when you get to do what we do, which is have conversations with amazing people, and within those conversations, look to pull out what I call value bombs. You know, those. The tidbits of knowledge that took you decades to acquire, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars to acquire, real life failures and successes to acquire. When I can pull that out during a conversation and literally hand it to somebody on a silver platter as they're walking their dog at 5am you know, just dreading their 45 minute commute to a cubicle to sit in a job that they hate that sucks their soul in their mind. And then that. That idea that I was able to extract from you, that was always there, that then lights a light bulb within them that gives them an aha moment that just plants a seed, just a little flame is sparks. And then six months down the road, they've kind of picked at that seed and they've watered a little bit and they fanned the flames a little bit. And. And then I get an email and it's like, hey, John, I just joined this course where I just bought your book or I just did this and like, look where I'm at. And then three years later, I get these success stories from these individuals that have done that, from that one thing that Dean Graziosi said back in 2017. And now I'm seeing this business that they've grown, they're employing all these people and they're helping all these other individuals. And the ripple effect that, you know, that conversation that you and I had seven years ago today is so amazing. And that's what I love about having 3,800 past episodes is right now, if somebody's listening, you know, to an interview I did with Tony Robbins in 2014, and they're being inspired by that interview, even though that was nine years ago, and they're going to go do something fantastic and then they're going to blow them, you know, up the world. And this is, to me, like, what better way can we make this?

And we get paid to do that.

We get paid to do that.

We get paid to do that.

We get paid to do that. And the reward is amazing.

And, you know, another thing I always think of, we know so many people in our space. Courses, podcasts, books, trainings, coaching programs, workshops, masterminds. They're extracting a life experience and helping someone go faster from where they are to where they want to be. Because I've been there in front of you, right? We're bridge builders. We're map. We sell maps only because we've navigated the territory before them, right? But most every single person I've ever met in this space, and we are blessed to know all of them, right? We get to hang out in, in Fiji and cool places. You know, we, we get together with a bunch of group of the people who helped Tony and I and supported us and, and you sit down with these people who are the New York Times best selling authors and the course creators. And I've never met one that was going through high school or college even and said, someday I'm going to create courses, right? It's, it's not that thing that you're in high school thinking, someday I'm going to be, I'm going to do group coaching. Someday I'm going to do retreats on an island where I invite high level business people in or I bet moms in to find their soul again. I've never met anybody that was there. Like, I don't think, I think it's been a journey where people find it. And I'd love to think, I'd love to ask you, when you were in the army, when you were getting out of the army, you were thinking of doing what your dad does. This was probably the furthest thing from your mind to think that you would be the person that inspired, inspires, teaches and helps people go faster. What, what clicked for you to go, oh yeah, I could do this.

It wasn't even in my realm of knowledge. I had no even know it existed. Existed. I was 26 years old. I was clueless about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. And I proved it by having what I call six years of struggle. I went to law school, dropped out after one semester. I took some crappy job in corporate finance just to have a job. And after a year, I knew that wasn't for me. I tried real estate. I tried all these different things because I thought those were the only career paths that were open to me. And I will say, luckily it was actually real estate. That kind of got me like really reading some books from some independent successful real estate agents. And like that kind of got me to rich dad, poor dad. And then that kind of led me to like reading some great audio, listening to some great audiobooks and reading some fantastic business books. Then that ended up leading me to like listening to podcasts. So it's all like this step by step by step process that all just started again going back to that one spark. So that's what I know what we do works because I experienced personally it was one spark that I had that led me to that next little spark and that next little thing. And it was not like overnight or over a week, it was over years of me struggling through just traditional career paths, not enjoying any of it, to finally say, wow, there's actually an opportunity for me to plant my flag. And you mentioned my book at the beginning. If I could sum that book up in one sentence, this is why people in our industry as entrepreneurs win. You become the number one solution to a real problem in this world. My book's like 300 pages long. If you want to skip reading those 300 pages, fine. But understand the summation is you will become successful if you provide the number one solution to a real problem in this world. And that was Entrepreneurs on Fire ten and a half years ago. Entrepreneurs on Fire. The day that I launched was the best daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. It was also the worst. It was the only. And that's okay. So that's why we talk about, you've got to define and identify a niche that's being ignored, that's being underserved, and come in and be the best there. Either because there's no competition, or there's crappy competition that you can blow out of the water. Because people will beat a path to the doorstep of the number one solution to their problem because that's what they want. And they will ignore the second best solution to infinity. And Dean. That's what most of the people that are out there are doing right now. They are just being the second, the tenth. So good solution to a real problem and they're being ignored. Nobody wants a pale week imitation of Dean Graziosi. We got the real thing right here, baby. So be the real best version of you.

God, that was so good. And. And what most people realize what, because, you know, we help brand new people get into this space. And when they come in, they feel the first instinct is I have to be the solution to a lot of things. And it's not even the solution to one thing. It's the thing within the thing, the niche within the niche that you could be at the best in the world at providing. Right. Some people say, I help people with divorce. What does that mean, you help people? Do you help the kids? Do you help the mom? Do you help the dad? Do you help both? And we watch people fine tune and go, oh, no, I help kids thrive during a divorce. I'm going to do child centered divorce therapy. Boom. Become the best at that. You're just helping kids feel balanced. And when you watch that narrow down and then go deep and simultaneously, you and I, you've been in this ten and a half years, which is amazing. And you've interviewed all of Them what I've seen at 27 and a half years, or 20, almost 28 years in this space, JLD is someone who gets a little success in what they do and then instead of going deeper, it's like, oh, the Internet came out. Oh, there's AI. Oh, there's. And they're following the fad and they wonder why. Maybe they're a million dollars a year and they want to go to 10 and never realize why they can't get the 10 or 100 million is because they're just bouncing across, trying to follow the fads rather than perfecting and going deep on the thing that you could help somebody with. In this space, we're talking about the self education industry, the knowledge industry, whatever you want to call it, sharing what you know, impacting others and creating a career out of it. I'll just say watching what JLD did, he's. He's the best in the world at what he does. That's why Entrepreneurs on Fire is one of the best podcasts and why it's been consistent, because he's not following the next fad. Can you evolve? Hell yes. I used to teach people how to invest in real estate, but that's all I did for a decade because that's where I started. Right now, all Tony and I are doing in our company is teaching people how to be in this industry. And we're going all in obsessed, night and day, lose sleep over it. While I'm in it, I'm going to be 10 foot deep. So thank you for sharing that because it's something I haven't thought of or shared with this audience in a long time.

My pleasure, brother.

I want to switch gears here a little bit, and usually I asked this in the beginning, but I'd love to ask it to you now. Is the reason we call this the Own youn Future podcast is because Tony and I did a challenge a few years back called Own youn Future, and it was massive. And people love that. You know if you don't own your future, someone else will, right? And I know you work hard and I work hard to be in control of our lives, to be the now husband you are and the future father you're going to be and the leader you're going to be and to take care of your health and how important that is. If someone said, hey, no, no, you got to be at work at 6 today. You can't work out, can't spend time with your new son today. You got to be here, that would only take one Time for you, and you would do whatever it took not to be able. Like, you need to be in control of that. So when. When I've got all different answers. So I want to ask you, when you hear own your future, what does that mean to you?

Owning my future means that I get to wake up every single morning and know that everything on my calendar for that day, that week, in that month is something that I put on there so that my future self is going to thank me, that present self of me, because I'm doing exactly what I want to do every day, every week, every month going forward. That's me owning my future. Now it's also surrounding myself with the right people. Like, to me, that's owning my future because I know that if I continue to surround myself with the right people, which is why I love podcasting, because I get to do that every single day by interviewing the world's most brilliant, successful entrepreneurs. But if I can surround myself with the right people, I'm going to continue to learn from them. I'm going to continue to be challenged by them, having new ideas brought to my doorstep and having my mind expanded by them. So that when this future comes, you know, as AI is starting to blow up and as you know, other things are starting to really kind of come in that are scaring a lot of people. I'm excited because I know where change is. That's opportunity. And the people that can sit there and. And be ready and open and excited for change, those are the people that are going to really be able to continue to be owning their future. It's the people that just refuse to see what's coming or refuse to change because it's working right now. Those are the people that stop or lose the ability to own their future because change is always coming. And it's not always a good thing. It's not always a bad thing. Sometimes it's going to be amazing. Sometimes it is going to be a struggle. But at the end of the day, like you, owning your future is continuing to surround yourself with the right people who are looking at new things, trying new things, talking about new things, so that I can stay on the cutting edge, so I can keep my finger on the pulse, knowing where I want my business and my personal life to be every day, week and month going forward.

God, that's so good. And, you know, I've been geeking out on this as well a lot lately, not realizing I started as an entrepreneur. I didn't realize it. I just watched my parents struggle so much. And never being in control of their life. That's what own your future means to me. My parents did not own any of their decisions. Right. And at a young age cutting firewood and fixing cars and all that. But I think it's like going into if you can't swim, you surely would not jump into the deep end that's 10 foot deep. But you walk in an inch at a time, you can get yourself in trouble. Right. You're not realizing it's getting deeper and deeper. And I've been comparing this mindset of mine because I want to make sure I meet people where they are. And you do this so well. JLD I've always had an entrepreneurial flair, meaning if I don't do my own thing, someone else is going to run my life the way I am now. I like to wear a T shirt every day of my life. I like taking my kids to school every single day. Right. I just, there's little things I want a date night every week with my wife I love. I get up at 4:30 and do my own morning routine. I don't want anybody ever taking these things away from me. So it's kind of a part of my life. But what I realize is sometimes, and you were in the military, even more strict is when someone has a career mindset doesn't mean it's bad. I'm not knocking this in any way. But you don't realize that somebody else is really slowly in some cases owning your future if you're in the wrong position. Listen, I love the career. Thank God. People in our companies love a career and we hope to allow them to flourish. But I'd love for you to talk a little bit about in your years of experience seeing that entrepreneur mindset compared to a career mindset. Because I'm meeting a lot of new people that are going well and they didn't realize they lost their voice, they lost control and they got sucked into the system and they were actually doing the things that they thought would get them a promotion or more money but not living into who they were supposed to be. And I think you can get lost in that.

The U.S. army is a fantastic place. I learned a lot of great qualities and left with a lot, lot of great habits from my time in service. But one thing that was so obvious to me, specifically looking back after I had already achieved becoming a successful entrepreneur, is that what the army does specifically, and this does definitely transfer to corporate America as well because I spent plenty of time in corporate America too, is you are often trying to do just enough to not get in trouble, because doing any more wasn't getting me any benefit, wasn't rewarding. Yeah, I'm a captain. I'm getting paid as a captain's salary no matter what job I have. And so I'm doing the least that I can to not get in trouble for my superiors, but nothing more. Because guess what? If I was actually too high speed, they call it in the military, then you start getting singled out for the really difficult jobs because they want the best people doing the most difficult jobs. So now, wow, I never thought about that.

This is great for me.

You are doing the hardest work, the most responsibility, the longest hours, all the things, because you are identified as the best and you're getting paid the same amount of money. You're just getting less of everything. Less time off, like, more stress, you know, more responsibility, all those things. And as an entrepreneur, I love how that was flipped on its head where it's just like, man, I can get up every day and I control my own destiny. I own my own future. I know that the harder that I work today, the more value that I provide today, that's going to pay me X, you know, potential dividends down the road, which is so exciting to me. And so it makes me so fired up. So that is why I love being an entrepreneur and owning my own future and why I could never go back to that prior mindset.

God, you just opened my mind up. I never thought about that. Is if you're getting paid the same and the harder work would only give you more work at a certain level, you're just doing enough to look good but not amazing and good enough not to go backwards. And that trains your brain to follow the system, not create the system. And so I just want to share that with you today. If there's anything I ever say that is very entrepreneurial, driven through that lens, and it feels like I'm not meeting you where you are. Sorry. I'm sorry about that. I've never been through that lens and I've been obsessing on the. On the career mindset, on how to help people shift that to realize you really can be in control of every decision in your life. I mean, think, if nothing else from this podcast, what John Lee Dumas just said and what I'm sharing is, could you imagine a day where every decision is yours and none of that happens overnight? And when people see that now and I get to do cool things and fly and do. It took a lot of work to get here, but there's not a thing thing I do in my life right now. Nothing that I don't want to do. If it's on a thing that doesn't serve me, doesn't serve my family, doesn't serve the man I want to become the husband. I want to be the team leader to this amazing team here. I get to say no, and it took a while to get there. But would you take the next five years of your life, right? Starting today, if in five years and one day from today, every single decision you ever made in your life was yours, would you do it? I think the answer would be a resounding yes. I got another thought. You're always working on yourself. You're always, I watched you do a water cleanse. I saw the picture. I'm like, dude, I don't know if I could do it. It's a tough one. I'm fasting till lunch every day and I'm struggling. I don't know if I could do the water cleanse. You might have me on that one. But I love watching your always growing world, your transformation, working on your relationships, working on your health, working on a next level, being a better interviewer, working on systems so you can, so you can get seven interviews in in a whole week, but still have time for your family and all your other businesses. I just watch you fine tune all the time. So I know you're always growing, man. So what I'd love to say is, what is one of the biggest mindset shifts you've had in the last 12 months?

It's a great question because that is my mentality. Like, you really didn't nail it. I am just a tweaker. I'm a fine tuner. A lot of people think like, man, I need to wake up and make a big leap today, otherwise I'm falling behind. And there's two books that I read early on that really made my mindset where it is today. It's a Slight Edge by Jeff Olson in the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. Two fantastic books that just both share the beauty of just getting 1% better every day. 1% better on this system, 1% better on this relationship, 1 better on this health. Because just like your analogy of getting in the pool, you can get in trouble one inch at a time. And just like we've all heard about that frog that if it's in a pot of water, won't get out if it's slowly getting warm until it boils. Like, the same thing happens in the positive side of things as well. We're like, man, if you're just getting 1% better every single day and these very important things, it's not going to hurt that much because it's only 1%. So it's not a huge jump. Like, if you only had to get 1% better on your camelback run from the day before, that's not a huge leap time wise. But over time, man, like, the systems get so good. The processes, the relationships, the health, it just all adds up to this amazing thing. And, you know, that's one thing that I'm so inspired by, is to see, like myself and others that just every day are working on the things that matter, but not looking to make life and death changes about them, but just doing small incremental twist tweaks, improvements that are going to get us to where we need to be. And you know, over the last 12 months, I mean, listen, the fact that I got married and that, you know, a few months ago I found out that I'm going to be a father and now to a son, I mean, that's shifted everything. And that's even pushed me to the next level of saying, how can I get so streamlined and really focus on me doing the things that I am great at doing, interviewing entrepreneurs, having conversations with amazing people, doing the things that I love and need to do, and then having systems, teams and processes to do all the rest. Because when that child comes, I want to be on the floor every single day, crawling around and goo goo gah ga. I want to be as present of a father as I possibly can be because I know it goes so fast. And I know then I'm gonna, you know, blink my eyes and that child's going off to college or his first job, whatever that might be. And like, I want to be there for that. So that's really, in the last 12 months, where I've shifted is like, let's really get dialed in.

Well, let me tell you, because I know the man that you are. If I can give you a little feedback on parenting, I have. The oldest is 16 and youngest is going to be eight months old. It does go by in a blink. My daughter's driving now, so, you know, all the little things you take for granted. When I used to take her to softball practice and I take her to school and pick her up from school, all those drives, I realized it was about four hours a week we were in the car. And that doesn't happen anymore because she's in her own car. And I was like, God, didn't see that One coming. I didn't see that one coming. So it's all the little things that you learn along the way. But my greatest lesson, I believe, is kids don't hear what you say because what you do is too loud and wow. And I became a better man because I knew my kids were watching. And you are an incredible human. And I mean that just because I got to see you when no one's watching. And that's usually when you know who someone is, but it really does step it up because you realize they're watching. Even my three and a half year old, Luca, right now, he watches everything I do. He listens to every conversation I'm on. And I just said to myself with my wife, because I have. I'd been divorced before, and that was probably mostly my fault. I'm very transparent on that. Even though we have a great relationship, we co parent amazing. We're great friends. But the commitment I made to myself in my relationship with my wife and with my kids is that if my kids videotaped me when I wasn't watching for a week straight and they watched it, they could be proud of me. And that's a standard. That's a standard on the text you send, the people you talk to, the things you do. And none of us are going to be perfect, Guilty of always trying to improve. But that little thing has really changed. My children have made me a better man. I'm probably a better friend to you, a better relationship with you, because I had those children and I want to be the man that they could look up to and go, I might not tell this guy, but I want to be like him. And I know that's. I know that's something great. You're going to be an amazing dad. I am so freaking happy. The next time we get together, let's just geek out. I don't want to bore everybody here. Let's just geek out on being a dad. And anything, any emotion, any thought you have, I just want to tell you, don't you dare hesitate to reach out. I love talking about.

Thanks, brother.

Dad, I got a question. What with all the changes going on in the world, the media is insanity, people. We're supposed to think that if we're on opposite sides of the aisle, we should hate each other and. And that we have nothing in common. I think the world has way more in common than they don't, but that's just not how it's portrayed. I think we've had lots of years of a good society that I think people are worrying about the wrong things and stressing themselves out when we could come together in a big way. That's not for me to say or decide. I could just be the best version of me. But with all the uncertainty out there, sometimes people sit on their hands and they're waiting for someone else to fix it. They're waiting for a change. And we know no one's coming to save us. Whether they hated the last president or hate the current president or hate the next one. Wherever you live, no one's coming to save us. What advice or what challenge would you give people in this world right now? To think what lens? Like, almost like if you give them a pair of glasses and say, hey, here's what I challenge you to look through this lens or think this way, what would that be?

Right now within you, there is a solution to a real, real problem that you can create the number one solution to, not the number two solution. The number one solution to that real problem. Right now within you, there is that opportunity to create the number one solution to a real problem in this world. When you do that, as I mentioned earlier, people will find you. People will be the path to your doorstep for the number one solution to their real problem. And when that happens, you do own your presence, you do own your future, because now you're providing real value to real people who have real problems and they need your solution. So yes, we need to be aware of the macro environment because that is the world that we live in. And I listen to a news podcast every morning. I feel caught up on what's happening. But I am in my world, I am in my bubble when I know that this is the number one solution that I can provide. An audio only daily podcast interviewing the world's most successful entrepreneurs, something you mentioned earlier. And we get this all the time. External sources are reaching out to me all the time. John, if you just went to a video and launched on YouTube, if you just started doing this on TikTok, if you just started doing this with AI, and they're not wrong, those are all opportunities. But I know that if I'm going to maintain my position as the number.

One, as the number one.

Daily podcast interviewing the world's most successful entrepreneurs, nothing can get in the way of that. And that is what I do every single day. So it's what I love doing, it's what I become great at. It's the number one solution that I'm providing to a real problem in this world. And I'm going to keep on doing that. And Once you get that momentum, which is so hard to get as an entrepreneur, once you get that head start, you do not even want to look over your shoulder. You just want to keep on charging. So right now, everybody, everybody listening and watching this has that number one potential solution to a real problem within them. Find it. Create it. Own it. Own your future.

Well, John, that is the perfect setup for me. Once again to remind you to register for the own your Future Challenge. Starting August 1st, it's five days. Yes, it's free. I know, I've said it. But I got to make sure you understand just because it's free doesn't mean you shouldn't attend. The value is insane. Tony Robbins, myself, some of the greatest guests in the world. How do you identify, extract and sell what you know, impact others and create a real business out of it? That's exactly what we're doing over those five days. Don't dare miss it. Oyf2023.com oyf2023 com it starts on the 1st. Don't dare miss it.

You know, you're a marketing genius, Dean. I mean you just continue to go from strength to streng. Surround yourself with the right people. And you know, for me, I always love hearing what people have changed their minds about in the last three to six months. So recently you thought something like six months ago, a year ago, and for whatever reason, your mind has been changed over the past three to six months. So what is that thing that you've changed your mind about that you think could really help myself and the listeners today?

Really great question. You know, my brain goes down lots of. I'm going to give you two quick ones. Number one, you know, we do this so well and so do you. You do it every single week. You bring every day. You bring reciprocity, you build reciprocity, you deliver value and advance. You earn the right to ask and share courses, books, things that you create. People go, God, this guy's given me so much value. I see what he's done. I would love. I was waiting for what's next. And I think we are evolving to a process where people are going to buy less and less unless you give value in advance. I believe the, you know, a good webinar is a good webinar, but a webinar that's just a 60 or 90 minute pitch only may get some sales, but it'll turn off everybody else who doesn't buy in comparison of thinking, how can I deliver real tactical takeaways? Give value in advance. Hence why Tony and I do a five day challenge. We're doing the own your future challenge. Like I mentioned, it's five full days. Yes, we are going to offer something incredible at the end if people want to continue. But those five days, people will have journals full of notes. They literally have the takeaways to go out and take their first next step to do something. And then we get to earn the right to say, if you love that, imagine if you worked with us even deeper. That has always been a strategy, jld, but I think it's going to be a must over the next decade. At least that's my belief. And I'm trying to figure out how to give more in front of the ask so much that people would say, well, that's dumb. Why would they buy anything from you if you give, give everything? It's like, well, if I give you this much for free, imagine what it could be if we, if you worked with me. So that's number one. Number two, AI, as you said, AI is, you know, it is a shift. It's not a, it's not a little thing. It is running water, it is the printing press, it is the motorized vehicles. It is gasoline over coal. It's a, it's significant. And may history might say it's more significant than anything in 20 or 100 years from now, but I wouldn't get overwhelmed by it. I wouldn't think it's going to replace you, but I would subtly start playing with it. I want to tell you, I'll just give you this example. We are doing the Own youn Future podcast and doing the Own youn Future event, I should say on August 1st and just this weekend. JLD, I'm thinking I wrote out who our avatar, who our ideal client was from the past five years and 5 million people who our ideal client is. I thought, you know, the ideal client is 42. And I started, yeah, they like this, they like this. They're a little nervous. Most have never tried in their own business at this level before and they're wondering if they could sell what they know, but they'd like to maybe explore success through a podcast or a coaching or a course or a book. And I just started typing it in into chat GPT and our team does way more advanced stuff. But I want to tell you what I did this weekend and I kept dialing in my avatar. No, not this, not this. And then I finally got to where there's my ideal client. And it came out as Julie, a 42 year old mom who's been in a career for 10 years but it's gotten stale and the kids are getting older. They could take care of herself and she's dying to do something more but it's got to be impactful. She's got to serve others while simultaneously she gets to do something for herself and it'll give her purpose again because she kind of got flat with her purpose. And I'm dialing in this avatar and then I said once it described it, I said what would be a great sentence that would get this Julie to stop and say hi, I gotta listen. And it gave me a bunch of sentences and I kept fine tuning and I went through okay if she what is the number one fear of this avatar? And it's like fear being relevant, fear of the balance of juggling and being a good wife and a good parent and starting something new, fear of technology. All these things I intuitively know JLD because I've been in it for 27 years doing this every day of my life. But it fine tuned and gave me nuances and thoughts that I wouldn't have thought of on my own. I look at it maybe the best way and I know you're already probably passed this jld so I'm talking to our viewers now. I would look at AI as a really smart executive assistant that can make things you already do other little bit better, that can research in real time, that can give you real facts and data and do you trust all of it? Is it going to write your book and write your whole campaign? In my opinion, no. That would be horrible. I think it could take what you do and either get you to the 50 yard line or help take you from the 50 yard line into the end zone. And I think it's worth exploring, it's worth asking and re asking. And when it comes to marketing, it can truly help you find your ideal client to help you pinpoint what is the one thing you're going to solve and be the best at it. Keep asking to get more more detailed and get more granular on how to serve and solve problems for that one group you're looking to solve. And it could be one hell of an executive assistant.

Wow. I'm glad I asked that question.

Yeah. Well jld, any last words or anybody you want to thank? I'd love to know who you want to thank. I'm guessing I know, but I'd love to hear who you'd like to thank in that journey. Sometimes we forget I asked that question. Some people will immediately say oh my wife which we should. Or my husband. And then they go, well, also my grandmother or my seventh grade teacher is, I know you're always thanking your wife, and I'd love for you to do that as well. But is there anyone else on top of that that you go, wow, that challenged me, or that sparked something in me?

You know, I'm going to go way back in the years and thank an individual by the name of Cliff Ravenscraft. Back in 2012, when I was going to launch a podcast, he was the podcast answer man. He since rebranded and focusing on other things now, but he was the guy when it came to podcasting. I joined his mastermind and it was really expensive. It was a lot of money for me at the time, and it made me really show up. And it was challenging. And he gave me, you know, a lot of great advice. He also told me not to launch a daily podcast because that would be a bad idea. So he did give me what is now proven to be a piece of bad advice. But, you know, what I took from that piece of advice that he gave on the Daily show was, hey, if the top guy in my industry says that it can't be done, and I figure out a way to do it, what an opportunity. So I. I want to thank him for being. For being there as an influencer and somebody who I learned so much from, for kind of planting that little rebellious spark in me of. Of making sure that I could prove him wrong. And he's a great guy. I still get to see him at various conferences and he's doing well, and that's who I choose to thank today.

Man, it's been so awesome catching up. I hope we get a chance to catch up in the real world. We're going to get to Puerto Rico in the next year. We'll make sure we let you know when we're on our way. This has been so fantastic. Thank you for serving so much. Make sure you find JLD entrepreneurs on fire. Is there any other place people can find you?

Eofire.com that is our headquarters. The Common Path to Uncommon Success is the book that I wrote, based off of the almost now 4,000 conversations that I've had with the world's top entrepreneurs. So that's. That's my opus right now. And it's been great chatting with you.

Dean, and it's been great spending time with you. Everybody else, thank you for being a part of the Own youn Future podcast. Thank you for making this one of the top podcasts in the world. Ever since the day we launched, it wouldn't happen without you. So make sure you subscribe, follow leave a comment and we'll see you time next next time. Thanks.