YOU Are the Change: Bold Inspiration and Success with John Lee Dumas | 19 Min Insight

I love reading inspirational quotes, and Gandhi's quote really stuck with me: "Be the change you want to see in the world." My friends, we all want the gold, but we don't love the grind. What's up with that? So many people go after mentors just because they're successful at something. They need to be successful at what you are wanting to do. When my mental bandwidth is the highest, that's when I go into action mode. First thing in the morning, the first hour, is me producing my best content, period. I'm the host of EO Fire, an award-winning podcast where I interview today's most inspiring and successful entrepreneurs 7 days a week. In 4 years, I've interviewed over 1,600 entrepreneurs, amassed over 40 million listens, and have turned EO Fire into a multi-million dollar a year business. I've created 2 journals to help guide entrepreneurs to success, The Freedom Journal and The Mastery Journal. I'm John Lee Dumas, and here are my top 10 rules for success. 5 years ago, almost to the day, is when I first heard about podcasting for the same reason, 'cause I was sick and tired of Miley Cyrus on the radio. I even went to the sports radio, but I'm not a Padres or Chargers fan, so I wasn't loving the sports talk radio either, and these commercials were so long, so I found podcasting as a listener, and I fell in love with the medium. I got it right away, on-demand targeted content, you could listen to it, and you could really connect with people, and I started listening to people like Pat Flynn, who's now become my good friend, he's right here in San Diego, Andrew Warner, David Simon Garland, these guys inspired me, and I said, man, I don't have to follow this traditional route that I thought I had to coming from a very traditional family, military, et cetera, And my eyes were opened, and it still was a couple years before I made that leap, but in September of 2012, that was the date I launched Entrepreneur on Fire. Here we are just 1,000 episodes later now, which is crazy to think. That is crazy. 7 days a week, and we average over 1 million unique listens per month in over 145 countries, so it's really become a platform that reaches the world, which I love.

So when you think of just like, almost becoming a lawyer and being in some of those just moments, like what was it that bubbled over where you said, you know, I just can't take it anymore? Where you're just like, you know what, I have to just do something different. Because last time we had a lot of folks that have quit their jobs, replaced income, and so if you're in that E quadrant that we talked about on the Cashflow Quadrant, so what was it that just said, you know what, I can't take it anymore, I'm just going to go for it?

For me, what was the really big boilover point is I was in commercial real estate. I did enjoy a lot of the profession, but the reality was this. I locked down a huge deal, and it was going to be a big commission check, and I was not excited about it. I was like, man, I am not excited about locking down what's gonna turn out to be, you know, a 5-figure check, because I'm like, now I gotta write the contract up, I gotta do this, I gotta do that, and I'm sure a lot of people in this room can resonate with either your current or past jobs, Just not being excited about what it's gonna take to do what you need to do. And I said, if I'm not even excited about bringing in this big commission, then this is as good as it gets. Is this the rest of my life? Is this what the rest of my life is gonna be like? Where I'm just looking at the watch, trying to make a beeline home as soon as possible, locking down big deals, not even caring. Is that gonna be my life? And I said, that's it. I refuse to live a life on those terms. I'm gonna take control. It had always been in the back of my mind. I'm loving listening to these interviews with inspiring entrepreneurs. Pat Flynn's podcast was twice a month, David Seidman Garland's once a week, Andrew Warner once a week, and they were bringing on great guests and telling great stories, and I was listening to these interviews as I was driving to work being like, man, I need more of these, because I'm driving to work 5 days a week, hitting the gym, I need more. I couldn't find it. And so the idea was in the back of my mind, like, I love reading inspirational quotes, and Gandhi's quote really stuck with me: "Be the change you want to see in the world." I wanted to see a 7-day-a-week podcast. I didn't know if anybody else wanted to see that, but I decided to stop just whining and complaining about the fact that it didn't exist and step forward and make it exist. My friends, we all want the gold, but we don't love the grind. What's up with that? I get it. We see entrepreneurs that we admire having these amazing experiences around the world. We see that Olympian with tears streaming down their face as the Stars and Stripes go up and the Star-Spangled Banner is playing. But my friends, that's just a snapshot of the success of their lives. You don't see that 10 years of failure that that entrepreneur went through to get to success. You don't see those 4 years of sweat that Olympian had to put in to to get that gold medal. No, we just want that gold medal. We don't even think about the grind that it took to stand on that podium. It's time for a mindset shift, FIRE Nation. I've interviewed over 1,400 successful entrepreneurs and they all love the grind. You must love the grind. So set a goal, make it big, make it meaningful, and then start the grind. Start it today. The smartest thing that I really should say that I did and my biggest early success was making that realization that I needed mentor, because again, I only knew how to press play on a podcast, nothing else. So I looked out there to the podcasters that were currently at where I wanted to be. I think that's so critical. So many people go after mentors just because they're successful at something. They need to be successful at what you are wanting to do. They need to be where you want to be. And for 3 months and a heavy investment on my part, rightfully so, I was mentored by Jamie, and that's just what opened up so many doors so quickly.

Okay, now we had a great question from Facebook, which was, if someone is starting right now and they can't afford that kind of investment to find a mentor or a coach, you know, what do you suggest that they do? Because I mean, at the very beginning, it seems like you have no doors and no connections, and you know, you're just like yourself alone starting a podcast in your basement. What do you suggest to them?

So number one, I would say getting that one-on-one mentor is critical. So if you know you can't afford X, like, think about what you actually can afford. What can you invest? What dollar amount? And then just go. For me, a great example, I have people that come to me now all the time and say, John, like, can you mentor me to be a podcaster? And I don't even have like a price anymore. Like, I don't one-on-one mentor anymore. I just I focus on other parts of my business, but I'm able to say, you know, listen, I'm sorry, I don't mentor, but I have a couple great options for you. What's your price range? Let me introduce you and hand you off to an amazing mentor who loves doing this, who's great at what he does or what she does, and then you'll be off to the races. So fortune favors the bold. So still reach out with that mentality and then also offer like what kind of value are you willing to exchange? You know, maybe you're willing, you know, to run their Twitter account and maybe you're willing to— to create some images or some design for them. Think about the bartering that you can do, trading your time, which is valuable, saving their— saving them time, right? There can be some really cool things that you can exchange that doesn't have to necessarily be dollars and cents. And then also I do want to add, there's also some great group coaching out there that's a lot cheaper. And then somebody that you've interviewed as well, Lewis Howes, as well as myself, we run membership masterminds. He runs the School of Greatness. I run Fire Nation Elite. These are membership masterminds that are around 100 people each, and so it's a lot less expensive. Whenever people reach out to me and say, you know, I'm doubting what I'm doing, I say, well, congratulations, you're a human being. That's what it means to be a human. High five. You doubt what you do. It's that voice inside our head. You know, it's innate in all of us. We're born with the imposter syndrome, so, you know, we don't walk outside of the cave at dark with a saber-toothed tiger. It's like there's a voice saying, don't walk outside, it's dangerous. But we don't live in that same world anymore, but we still have that inside our head, and that's fine, but we need to learn not to let it control our lives, but to embrace that fear. And so I still have it every single day. I mean, we talked about my revenue last month. I still wake up and say, "Man, should I be doing it? Should I do this webinar?" I have these doubts and these fears, and that's just a reality, and I've just learned to embrace that. This quote is by the ex-president Theodore Roosevelt, And he delivered this in Paris back in 1910. It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. Credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by blood, by dirt, by sweat, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again. Because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deeds? Who knows great enthusiasms and great devotions and spends himself on a worthy cause? Who at the best in the end knows high achievement, and at the worst, if he fails, he fails daring greatly, so that his place will never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. I had this mentor, Jamie, and I was in Cliff Ravenscraft's podcast mastermind, and they said, "John, you're insane. It's going to be so much work. Don't do a 7-day-a-week podcast. Do a 1-day-a-week podcast." And I think this is really important too, is that you need as an entrepreneur to really take the great feedback and the great advice from those who have come before you, from those who are mentoring you, But at the same time, you need to listen to your gut, to your intuition. I took so many great pieces of advice from both Cliff and Jamie and applied it to my business. But when it came to a 7-day-a-week podcast, my intuition, my gut was telling me it had to be that way. Like, that's what I, that's what I was meant to create. I had the military discipline. I knew how to do, you know, create systems. I knew how to work hard. I had the finances to to allow me to do so for a significant amount of time without being distracted by other things, I knew that I could make it happen. I knew that was going to be my USP, that unique selling proposition, my differentiator. So I listened to my heart, I listened to my gut, and I think that's so important for people to realize that you're gonna have something in your gut that's telling you to do something, and hopefully it's something that is unique and it is different, and make sure you follow that. We have a lot of people that are gonna watch this, that are watching, that start podcasts or have podcasts or want to start them. So what's kind of the right way to do it for you? If you are willing to step back and say, "Hey, I am going to commit to delivering free, valuable, and consistent content." Those 3 things. I'm gonna commit to delivering free, valuable, and consistent content. You are going to grow an audience in your niche. But if you can commit to getting to that tipping point, and that tipping point is going to happen when you're doing the free, valuable, and consistent content. You will get to revenue, but it's not going to come overnight, over one month. It's going to take time. And that's why I'm not against the side hustle. I want to talk for just a minute about action versus reaction. Such a critical concept. So many people start their day in reaction mode. Let me grab my phone. Let me see what's on X. Let's see what's on Y. Let's see what's on Z. Facebook. What's in my email? What do people want from me? You start in reaction mode, you're likely going to end in reaction mode. No bueno. We don't want to start or end in reaction mode. How about this? We're going to start in action mode. We're going to take actions that are going to improve our business, add value to what we're bringing in value to others' lives. When my mental bandwidth is the highest, that's when I go into action mode. First thing in the morning, the first hour is me producing my best content, period. I'm going to spend my best mental bandwidth answering somebody's email, someone's question, someone's ask, want, need. No, it's your best mental bandwidth. Reaction's part of the game though. Realize you do need to engage, you do need to answer those emails, those tweets, those Facebook messages. You Snapchat me, I'm answering back. That is part of the game. Start to be intentional about when you act and when you react. And remember, use your best mental bandwidth, your energy, for action. Fire Nation, as entrepreneurs, we love getting right to the finish line. And then never crossing it. Do you wanna know why? Because as long as we're living in a pre-launch mode, we're living in a fairy world of this might work. It might work. But as soon as you press publish, then it gets real. Then the market tells you if this is going to work or not. You either win or you lose. And we are terrified of losing. We wanna live in that comfortable pre-launch stage of where everything and anything is possible. Fire Nation, everybody told me EO Fire would not work, that a daily podcast was doomed to fail. So I kept pushing back my launch like living in my fairy world of this might— I wanted my dream to stay alive a little longer. Until I pushed that go button, that publish button, EO Fire was still possibly a success. Reality hadn't set in. So yes, your chances of losing are a lot less pre-launch, but your chances of winning are zero. So take this away, Fire Nation. You will lose if you remain in your fairy tale land of pre-launch, and you will never win. There's one way to win: press launch. Let the market decide. The alarm clock would go off very early every single morning. I'd wake up, I'd check my phone immediately for any emails that had come in, and then it'd be shower, shave, dress in my full suit, and jump in a car. And that car to me represented my first kind of drudgery task for the day. It made me feel trapped because I had done all the right things. I had gone to college, I had been an officer in the Army for 8 years, I had gone to corporate finance, I had worked with John Hancock, I had done commercial real estate. I had done all the right things. And now here I was stuck on this hamster wheel going nowhere, inspiring nobody, especially not myself, and just feeling like I was trapped. Trapped in this world that I had created. And it was this sinking pit in my stomach, and, and I just was wondering why, why have I not found what I'm looking for when I've done everything that I was told I was supposed to do? Here I am years later on the same hamster wheel, feeling like I'm even further behind where I thought I was 5 years ago. And this sinking mundane feeling would just not go away. It was ever-present with me, and I just wanted Freedom. And I just wanted freedom. I just wanted to do work that I was inspired by, and I just wanted to do work that inspired others. So there I was, stuck in traffic again, but at least I had my podcast, or so I thought. Then before I knew it, poof, my last podcast had ended and I scrolled through my iPod and there was nothing left. And I thought to myself, man, I have to sit here for another 45 minutes in traffic with nothing but the radio? I was devastated. But at that moment, at that devastation moment, that is truly when my aha moment happened. That's when the light bulb went off. I said, what? There's not a 7-day-a-week podcast? There should be a podcast that comes out every single day of the week that interviews inspiring and successful entrepreneurs. And that's when I had my light bulb moment. I said, there should be someone that creates it. Why not me? I know all these great entrepreneurs who are hosts of their own shows. I could be just like them. I can do this. So I had all of these thoughts swirling in my head. Am I going to fail? Am I going to look like a fool in front of my friends and family who up to this point had only seen me as a success? And these were real fears. I used to wake up sweating sweating in the middle of the night saying, what am I doing? This is insane. And the only way that I would be able to go back to sleep was by convincing myself that when I woke up in the morning, I was going to give it all up and go crawling back to my job in commercial real estate. But luckily for me, I would wake up in the morning, the sun would be shining, and I'd say, you know what, I'm going to give it one more day. One more day. I'm going to sit down, I'm going to learn what it takes upload a media file. I'm gonna learn how to create great audio. I'm gonna learn what it takes to be an interviewer, a host of a show. And every single day I would get shot down, I would struggle, I would come up against another wall that would knock me down, but I kept getting up. I kept taking one step forward for every half step that I was taking back. And slowly but surely, I saw myself turning into a podcaster right before my very own eyes. And it was a slow process, but it did come, and I was able to continue to move forward until the launch of Entrepreneur on Fire on September 22nd, because at that point there was no turning back. Fire Nation, look what we've created. Look at the inspiration we spread throughout this world. A podcast 7 days a week interviewing the most inspiring and successful successful entrepreneurs in the world: Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk. We are listened to in over 145 countries, millions and millions of unique downloads. Fire Nation, look at what we've created, look at what we've done, and we've just started.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Ethan Perruzo asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know what did John say that really resonated with you? What lessons are you going to take and apply it to your life or to your business? Leave it in the comments and I'm going to join in the discussion. Thank you guys again for watching. Watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.