010: Batching & Boundaries with John Lee Dumas

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This is your time. How can we earn twice as much in half the time with joy and ease while serving the highest good? That is our guiding question here at the Freetime Cafe, your home for heart based business. I'm your host, Jenny Blake. Join me for conversations with authors, friends and fellow business owners as we explore ways to free your mind, time, time and team to do your best work. Now onto today's show.

Hello my friends. I am so excited to have John Lee Dumas here with us today, AKA jld. He is the founder and host of the award winning podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire. You want to talk about On Fire? It is this show. He has over a million monthly listens of over 3,000 daily episodes. I remember having a conversation with JLD when he was just getting going and I've been fortunate to be on the show twice. He has interviewed luminaries like Tony Robbins, Barbara Corkin, Gary Vee, me, I mean, and now we're here celebrating the launch of his new book. I could not be more excited. It is called the Common Path to Uncommon Success. Jld, welcome to the show.

JB I am fired up here. Thanks for having me. I can remember so clearly having you on the show way, way, way back in the day. You were one of my first 50. I was nervous, you know, I was, I admired your work. I loved what you had built and we had a great conversation. You know, thankfully, you know, you brought value because I was still like a bumbling idiot back then. But you know, we got through the episode. It was awesome. Had you back on again not too long ago and we obviously crushed it then and we got a round three coming up I hear when your book comes out. So I'm excited to get you back on Entrepreneurs on Fire.

Thank you. It's been incredible to watch your journey and now I actually got to read about the kernel of your idea in your book, which I definitely encourage everybody to check out, where you said that your Uncommon Path to Common Success was setting out to create a daily show. And so it was just mind blowing to watch you fly out of the podcasting Gates, you. You know and commit to this, this daily launch cadence. I know that a big part of that for you is batching and that you do eight interviews a day for two days. Is that still your batch schedule?

I still batch like a baller, jb and that.

Okay, now here's my question for you. Do you find that your energy waxes and WANES across those 16 interviews in those two days? Are there things that you do to make sure that interview 15 has the same quality and energy as interview 2?

Couple things on that. Listen, I don't let my energy wax or wane. It's a choice. I choose to show up on fire for those 16 interviews over the course of two days because I owe it to my audience. I owe it to Fire Nation. And if I can't do that, I'm in the wrong industry. I'm in the wrong zone of fire. I'm not living within my big idea. So for me, this is what I do. I show up, I crush it. It's just like that football player waking up Sunday, they're going all out. That's their one day per week. If I can't do that two days per month, I'm in the wrong industry. Now, could I do that 30 days per month? Of course not. I'm a human being. I would zonk out, I would die, I would spin off this earth. I would not be able to do it. But I have what I consider a very achievable goal, and there's no alternative except for me to accomplish that goal. And it's a lot of mindset, it's a lot of confidence. And any. Anybody can have that mindset, have that confidence. The key is, are you living within your zone of fire? And that's where you're going to execute best.

Did you always have this stack of eight interviews times two days, or did you. Were you doing a more daily in the beginning?

Always. And when I say always, I wasn't always able to quite stack them as beautifully as I can now months out in advance, because I get 400 inbound requests every single month to be a guest on the show. So, you know, we have application processes and there's appearance fees to be on, and there's all these nine yards now, nine years later, 3,000 episodes later. Back when I was grinding, obviously I was taking what I could get. Like Jenny Blake's like, hey, I can interview you tomorrow. I can be interviewed tomorrow at 4:44am I'm like, I'm there. I take it. Let's go. And I would do that. And that was during the season of grinding, of getting to a place where then I could be like, okay, listen, here's my studio days. Snag one that works for you. And I would have a lot. And this is probably six months in. And that allowed me to start a semblance of a schedule that I was then by year one, by the end of the first year, really dial it in to that. Really two to three day per month, just batching like a baller.

I love this. Batching like a baller. What I think is so interesting is just your systematic approach, because I think some podcasters would just say, oh, I gotta take what I can get, and, you know, kind of let themselves continue to be a little bit scrappy about it, or at least not nearly as laser sharp intentional about their schedule and their time as you are. What was the shift in you, I mean, beyond like the just epic challenge of trying to produce a daily show, including weekends? What was it that said, I'm gonna start getting this down to this incredibly well oiled system machine?

Well, let me step back and kind of paint the whole picture real quick. So back when I was starting Entrepreneurs on Fire, I knew I was not gonna be a good podcast host, period. I had never done it before. Why should I be good? I wasn't good. And I knew.

And of course you were good. You said that.

Look, of course you were. But please go back to the first 150 episodes. Great energy. I am, you know, just hanging on by a thread. And that's okay, because guess what? Why should we expect to be good at something we've never done? Like, that is what I want people to realize. You need to put in the reps. You need to be understanding of yourself that you're going to be okay, average, not so good at first. And hopefully when you put in the reps on a consistent level, you're going to get better and better and better, and then you'll be at a place you want to be. So that was my opportunity to come into an underserved niche, into a void I saw in the market, which there was no daily podcast. So guess what? Even though I wasn't that good, I was the best daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. I was the worst daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. I was the only daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. And like, how can you, the listeners right now, in your niche, in your vertical, in your industry, how can you be the only, and you don't have to stay in that little tiny niche that you've crafted for Yourself, you can expand and broaden out. I mean, look what I've done, you know, since my daily show. I mean, I've gone out and self published four journals and have all these courses and affiliate deals and products and services and communities. I mean, the whole shebang from my first blue ocean idea of the daily podcast, interviewing entrepreneurs. And I was scrappy to use your terminology for sure at the beginning, but I knew if I was going to do this for the long haul, for nine years and counting, which is, we're talking right now, is the timeline. I was going to have to get down systems. I was going to have to get down a schedule that made sense for me and that was, well, that overall just made sense for entrepreneurs on fire, for the guests that I was bringing on as well. I got there over time, six months, made a big jump, big improvement at a year. I was really dialed in with my schedule and I've continued for the last nine plus years to tweak, to adjust the pivots, and now I've got this system down, which, you know, is literally seamless and just flows. And sometimes I'm just like, man, I need to find some more things to do. I'm staying out here in the Caribbean and sipping, sipping margaritas in the sun. I gotta, gotta get my, gotta get my booty back to the office. Like, let's do that. But, you know, I needed some more. I need something more to do.

Yeah, a book will definitely keep you busy. Like, I know you don't like the word busy, but a book is definitely something that requires this, like, love and nurturing and attention and the ideas marinate throughout the whole time that you work on it.

And if you do it right, it's a piece of your soul. Like, you are dedicating a piece of your soul to this book. But I love that because now I'm staring across the room at this book that's propped up on this table and I'm like, I love you. I love you.

There's a quote that I cite at the end of Pivot that every reader infuses the book with soul as well. So you have the soul of the author. And then every single time, for every person who puts picks it up, that book gets more life breathed into it.

It's a great ad. I'm gonna, I'm gonna really take that and own it. Because now when I get those emails from people who have read the book, I'm gonna be like, they've also infused amazingness into this book.

Yes. Then for the record, I'll read you the proper quote. Carlos Ruiz Saffan, he wrote the Shadow of the Wind. He says every book has a soul, the soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.

I mean, how can you not love writing a book after hearing that quote? It makes everything worthwhile.

I know. I call it Serendipity Popcorn. That, of course, having a podcast will do too. But a book is just. You don't know who's going to find it, who's going to contact you, who's going to grow and learn from it. It's like you just send all these little popcorn kernels out into the world.

And I think of some of the books that I've found and read in random scenarios. Like a great examp example was this one that I was backpacking through India, just picked up this book and read it, and it had such a profound impact on my trip, like on my specific journey, that I, I just, like every time I think of India, like, I think of this book and the places I was when I was reading it, and it was just mind blowing.

Well, now you got to tell us what book it was.

You know, I was gonna ask that.

I did, I did. It's. It's an Indian name. I'll probably have to Google it right now because it's kind of a longer name, but okay.

Yeah, that's exactly what it was. Shakaram Shantaram is like, I mean, yeah, the guy that was in jail and.

Then got like, escaped over the front wall of an Australian prison.

I was reading that book, Shantaram, while I was sitting in the cafe in, in Mumbai that he wrote most of the book in. And I was reading the part where he was talking about he was there when a gunfight happened. And I looked up and there were the bullet holes that he was talking about. It was such a scrap, crazy experience to like, read that, look up and see, like, literally bullet holes that they had kept there. And they purposely were kept it there because it was part of like the draw of the cafe and it was insane.

That's so. I know. It's such a vivid book. And I love how in your book you said you were eat, pray, loving your way to figure out what to do after being in the military for eight years. And then.

Well, that real quick, just to kind of jump on that for a second. I was in Bristol, Rhode island, which is Where I was going to law school. It's called Roger Williams Law School. It was in the middle of my first semester. I was so miserable. I was so depressed. I was actually dealing with some PTSD from my army days at the time as well. So there's like multiple things kind of stacked up on each other. And I knew I was in the wrong place. And I was walking down Main street in Bristol and here was just like, little local bookstore. And that book was in the glass window. And I was just like, I'm just going to go in and just like, read the back of it. And I was like, something about this book is really drawing me in. And I bought the book from that person and went back to my little condo and decided not to do my law school work that day. And I read the book and almost in one sitting. And it was such an amazing book. I decided on the spot I was going to India. And literally I went that day onto this, like, travel forum, found two guys that had already planned this India trip, and I jumped in with them on that trip. And we left at the end of my first semester, which is when I dropped out of law school. And we were there for four months.

That is incredible. Way to just follow the clues. I feel like you have a very strong intuition, which maybe you've talked about a lot, maybe not, because throughout the book, there were these things where you would say, and then it came to me, and that you have this voice that talks to you, as it does for me, too. I think we all have access to this. What would you say to that? How would you say intuition plays a role, whether it's going to India or your podcast nine years in, I'd say.

Everybody has that voice. Everybody has that intuition. Very few of us listen to it and very few of us act upon it. And it's been the reason I'm now sitting here in my dream home in Puerto Rico on the Caribbean, you know, doing the work that I love literally every single day, you know, with the person that I love, you know, hosting family members all the time that I love in a community that I love and, you know, truly financially free and fulfilled. You know, the tagline of my book is this 17 step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment. Because I have been on this very specific 17 step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment. And it all traced back to listening to that intuition. And by the way, the intuition wasn't like, here's the exact path to go. Like, this is. This is what you need to follow that Intuition voice was like, this isn't right. Try this. And when I tried that, sometimes that didn't work either, but that was fine because it got me out of the prior thing onto the next step. And then my intuition, you know, was like, I want to try a daily podcast and quit commercial real estate. And then that one was the home run. So you're not always going to, like, have this home run moment when you have this little voice, this intuition, but it's going to keep you going on this path. It's going to put you in front of more and more opportunities, and that's where you win.

So there's. There's something I want to ask you about that because I think you have been very, very strategic. Yes, there's the voice, but you've also asked various strategic questions that make that intuition kind of come in in a really targeted way. So what is the. Okay, I love podcasts. What is the. The podcast that doesn't exist. It's a show for entrepreneurs that comes out every day because we're commuting to work every day. And so you've been really strategic. And in listening to some of your other interviews, it also seems like you're exceptionally good at saying no and drawing boundaries. So I heard you say a story of, you know, like, if someone asks you to meet for coffee, which you and I both 10 years in, so I could get a lot of those that you'll accept if they come to you up to 30 minutes, but you don't talk business. I could already see myself like, oh, they drove all this way. Oh, why don't I extend the time? So how do you. Is it just innate within you, or have you grown this skill the last decade in business of saying no and having these really crisp boundaries within the systems that you create so that you're more often in your zone of fire, as you call it.

Well, listen, first off, I do have a pretty strong belief that most people in this world, the vast, vast majority, are people pleasers. And that's not like a negative connotation. That's a human trait. That's why, you know, when, back when we were all in tribes, we were able to stay in that tribe because we tried to please each other instead of getting ostracized and then you die. So I get why that's part of the human psyche, and part of the human traits that we have is innate within almost all of us. And it's just in very varying in different levels for people. And so I like to people please to a Certain degree where people want to ask me if they can, you know, take me out to lunch or do this or do that. I'm like, no to all of those things because, like, I'm not leaving my house to go somewhere I'm not doing, you know, taking a big chunk of the middle of my day, which is my, you know, quality work time. But hey, if you want to come here for 30 minutes, we'll sit down, we'll have a cup of tea, we'll have a cup of coffee, and we'll have a conversation. Not around these topics, but just about, you know, what's going on. I'm happy to do that because I do enjoy talking to people. I enjoy meeting new people. And it's so relevant for me down here in Puerto Rico because everybody's, you know, obviously wanting to keep the money they make. And so the amount of people that are moving down here to Puerto Rico is insane. It's probably only rivaled by Austin, Texas, which I don't. I don't get. But, you know, well, more for that later. It's. It's happening all the time. We're like, john, I'm in Puerto Rico. We're checking it out, like, can we take you out to dinner and this and stuff? And I love they're asking. It's kind. And I don't take that for granted. But I just have to say no, because I can sit down, we can talk about the area of the location, Puerto Rico, for, you know, 20, 30 minutes, and then I'm back to it. So when actually people come over, I'm just like, hey, so glad you made it on time. I appreciate it because I got something, you know, right. Right at the top of the hour, like whenever it is, and I kind of set that expectation right away, and boom, we have a great hangout. They're respectful, I'm respectful. And, you know, we go on and we have a great little sit down. And so for me, it was really all the way back to a Derek Sivers quote when he said, if it's not a hell yes, it's a no. And that's not for everybody right now. Like, at the beginning of my journey, everything was a yes because I had to take every opportunity that would come to me. I mean, everything. You want to speak here in front of 10 people? Yes. You want to interview this person, like, who may or may not be super relevant? Yes. Like, do you want that? Yes. Like, before people could ask me a question, I was saying yes, because I was in the growth, growing process. Of just any opportunity could and maybe will break open another opportunity that will lead to something that's meaningful. And sometimes that did happen and I'm just at a different place in my journey now. I'm at a different season, which of course you are too, Jenny, and you have to now say, okay, this is a great opportunity and I love the idea of this opportunity, but it just doesn't fit into what I want or need to be doing right now. So it's an absolute no. Like it's not even a consideration because that would take bandwidth and I just can't have the bandwidth extended on those and expended on those things. So that's kind of my mentality on that. And right now where I'm at, and this is where people will be getting to as they, you know, continue on their common path to uncommon success along the 17 step roadmap. You will get to a point where if it's not a hell yes, it's a no. And that's a great place to be.

I love the way you phrase that. And I have this knowing doing gap. As a veritable people pleaser myself, I've known the Derek Sivers quote for so long, but even something as simple as how to have a graceful exit from a 30 minute meeting. And I love the way you're just so clear upfront with a person when they show up. But also you're clear on podcasts like this one. You're like, this is how I operate. So people will start to know when they reach out to you. Oh, this is how JLD sets things up. And if I want to hang out, it's going to be like this.

A perfect example of that is, you know, I give a lot of people reaching out to me to be on their shows every single month. You know, one of the major reasons I run Podcasters paradise, which is the biggest podcasting community in the world. So when people join, which we get a lot of people joining, one of the things they want to do is interview me, like the founder and somebody they've looked up to and you know, of a podcast or a business or a combination of the both. And I don't want to say no because, you know, they've joined my community and I do want to pay it forward, just like people like yourself and other people paid it forward back when I was starting. So love doing that. But there has to be time constraints. That is so key. So I have one day per month where I have a scheduling link and that scheduling link is for 15 minute blocks only. And I have 20 back to back blocks. That's. That's it. One day a month, 20 interviews. On other shows, they're 15 minutes each. And some people would be like, that's insane. I can never do that. And I get it. So maybe you start with five or maybe you start with with two or seven. And maybe you're building up over time, maybe you're not. Maybe you just find your comfort zone. And for me, that's where I want to be. Because I have the ability, the drive, the desire to do that one day per month, mind you, one day per month. And I knock it out. So whenever people reach out to me, my team gets back to them and says, hey, John would love to be on your show. Here's the scheduling link. He can only do 15 minute shows because he gets a ton of requests every single month. If that works, book here. If it doesn't, he understands and wishes you the best. And that's the only option they have. And then when I jump on the call with them, because so many of them were just like, so do you like, is it cool for you to go 20, 25 minutes? Which it's 100% not because I have an interview right after them. I just like preemptively say, hey, Jenny, I'm fired up to chat. We have 15 minutes from right now. Let's make the most of this. And I just put it up there right at the top. And that's just the expectation to set. Everybody's happy because everybody knows where we're at and we go forth and conquer.

I love it. And in actuality, do you have any buffer in between or they literally, you hang up and you're on to the next one.

Yeah. So they're 20 minute blocks. So I do three per hour. So it's 15 minutes, five minutes off. 15 minutes, five minutes off. Because, you know, it does go like 16 minutes sometimes. And people are like trying to like ask me something after the interview and I'm like, oh, I gotta go to the next interview. And then, you know, so I. And plus there's gonna be bathroom breaks. I wanna take a sip of water, I wanna fill up my cup of coffee, I wanna do this and that. So five minute buffer is more than enough. I knock out three per hour. So like, you know, what is that? It's a little over six hours to do those 20 interviews. Which, you know, to me, I'm talking to 20 cool people in six hours. You know, most people are working eight hours a day at a job they Hate, like, I can hang out for six hours once a month with 20 cool people. That's also, by the way, building my brand. Because not to get too off topic here, but a real quick thing. When people ask me, John, how do you grow your podcast? You get 1.4 million listens a month. I'm like, I put in the work. Podcast listeners listen to podcasts. So guess what? I'm converting the converted. When I come on somebody else's show and I drop value and I share great content, I share solutions to their real problems. And then my call to action at the end of the show is, hey, check out Entrepreneurs on Fire. I know you listen to an average of seven podcasts because that's the average podcast listener. I want to be one of your seven. Go to wherever you listen to podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire subscribe, check out my show. And they're already converted podcast listeners. So, so many people are like, John, how much money should I spend on Facebook ads? On this, on social? How much time should I spend on social media? On X, on Y, on Z? I'm like, none. Like, why aren't she spending time on other podcasts? Like, that's the best use of your time. But Jenny, I digress.

Oh, I love it. I mean, this is your, this is your systems genius. And I laughed out loud in the book where you said you quoted yourself, it's a pull quote. Podcast listeners listen to podcasts. It's just so funny. I feel the same way of why would I try to reach them anywhere else? The other thing I just wanted to highlight because I used to respond to requests to be on other people's podcasts kind of willy nilly on a one off basis before we created our own systems. So there's two things I just want to call out that you get to charge your energy all month long and you show up on that one day and you're in the zone, as you said, your boot up time for your brain to do that kind of a thing happens one day a month so you can show up fully, you and on Fire, because you've built those reserves and you don't have that decision fatigue, which I had for way too long of every single interview. Should I take this? When should I take this? When should we schedule it? And I love how clearly you just boom, it's one day a month, 20 slots, six hour block.

Go, go, done. And to add what you're saying, also, I'm living in my zone of fire. Like I keep kind of coming back to that because being a Guest on other podcasts, interviewing people on my podcast, having conversations with awesome people. That's where I thrive. I actually gain energy from that. I'm charging during this conversation right now. The next person that I'm this interviewing me, they're going to get some benefit from our conversation right here. Because I am an extrovert. I am living in my zone of fire. I love having these conversations. Like, if Covid, like, What happened, like, 30 years ago, I would have been screwed because I would have been, like, not able to converse with people. Now I'm just, like, as happy as anything. Not about COVID obviously, but the fact that I can continue having conversations with amazing people because of the world that we live in. And, like, I love the ability to do just that. And so, like, this is where actually step one of my book is identify your big idea, which is getting to living in your zone of fire. And not everybody should be doing what you and I are doing right now, because it's not their zone of fire, but there's one of fire exists. Let's find it for you.

We'll be right back just after this.

Okay. I love that you brought this in Zone of fire. And by the way, I'm completely introverted, but this still charges me up. So we come from both sides because introverts like these, you know, deep in depth conversations. And so I will also leave this conversation more energized than when we started. Thank you, jlt. Okay. You know, I'm studying delightfully tiny teams.

Yes.

And there's a reason for that name that I think there are some of us that we don't have aspirations to grow the biggest team that ever lived. And at the same time, it's very hard to be in your zone of fire if you're doing all the things, especially as much as involved in a podcast. Can you talk to us a little bit about your current team setup and also, when was it that you made the decision? I don't want to do all the tiny things. Like, my zone of fire is being on the interview live. Like, I just think that's another example of an area you completely have protected your genius through systems and by building a team. So I would just love to hear the behind the scenes of how that's set up.

So, first off, you've always had fantastic branding. You nailed it. Once again, this is just a spectacular phrase. Delightfully tiny teams. And that is my world. My team is tiny. I have three virtual assistants. Two in the Philippines, one in Pakistan. My monthly salary combined for all of them is under $4,000. It's myself and Kate living in Puerto Rico, just running a thriving media business known as Entrepreneurs on Fire. People looking at what we produce, all the podcasts, all the webinars, all the courses, all the books, all the social media, all the emails, they'd be like, yeah, like, you know, 45. 45 to 100 people on your team. Like, that would be a range that people would give me all the time if they were to ever ask. And I always be like, well, what would you guess? That would be their response when I came back and said, not only do I only have three people on my team, but they are literally all virtual assistants that, you know, don't even have, like, English as a first language. I mean, they're spectacular and they're talented, but it's not like, you know, I went and hire somebody from, you know, Silicon Valley, you know, that's like a coder that has all these amazing skills. No, these are just like people I found on Chris Ducker's virtual staff finder. And one of them's been with me for 12 years. One for seven and one for six. And we have built this delightfully tiny team. We haven't added to it in forever. I don't see us adding to this team any anytime soon because it is running so smoothly and doing exactly what we wanted to do. And wow, to not have to be in. In, like, weekly team meetings. To not have to be, like, my finger on the pulse with how, you know, or what other people on my team are on this big team that I have are doing every single day. But instead to know that I have three people that are completely dialed in to know exactly what they're doing. It's what I love. It's what I thrive on. Now, mind you, in my book, under my, you know, Build a Team chapter, which is one of the major steps, I talk about this specific point and how I, you know, thrive with my delightfully tiny team. But I bring in Amy Porterfield to talk about kind of the other side of the spectrum. Like, that's one thing I love doing. And, you know, I loved doing this book was not just, like, sharing people, the. The step itself, which of course I do, and then my perspective, which of course I do, but also another person's perspective on how they can thrive in a different area, because for you wanted a different perspective. And Amy, she has 18 people on her team. That's not huge, but, you know, it's not tiny either. And so she has four departments and four department heads. And she operates by only communicating only with those four department heads. So she's essentially only communicating with almost the same number of people as me. Like I'm communicating with three, she's communicating with four, but I have three people on my team and she has 18. And those four department heads then go off and run their departments. And that's how that, that works. So you can do it the Amy way. And that's if you want to get a certain scale, a certain level, a certain leverage, that can be a path to do it. But at the same time, you can have a delightfully tiny team, AKA three people, and myself and Kate, and run an incredibly thriving, you know, incredibly profitable business. In fact, you know, we just hit our 89th month in a row of a net profit of over a hundred thousand dollars. So this is a delightfully tiny and delightfully not just generating revenue, but net profitable team. And everybody knows their role. Yeah, everybody knows their role and they execute and it's really easy to manage.

And the tenure of your team speaks to what it's like to work with you as well. Because the fact that people have stuck around, this is what I love about our entrepreneurial ecosystems, is that if you're an asshole, people aren't going to keep working with you. No one's under a contract, you know, I mean, your, your VAs might be, but.

No, my VAs literally get offered like outrageous amounts of money. Oh my God. I hire John's VA away from him will be to implement the systems and they're just like John, we know that, like that entrepreneurial team may be here today, gone tomorrow. Hopefully they're gonna be successful, but they're family with us. Like they have built houses off of the salaries that we've given them. They've put their kids through school. Like I made that comment, which is true that it's combined under $4,000 a month, which is, you know, hard to believe for, you know, for someone who lives in the States. But that's life changing money for these individuals. I mean, One of my VAs is making $2,000 a month in the Philippines. You know, in the rural Philippines, where there's no opportunities that is, she's the richest person in her town. Like, no exaggeration, like it's insane.

That is incredible. That's incredible. I just love it. And, and I'm with you, just the simplicity of communications. I don't have any weekly recurring meetings either in my business. Although your, your calendar of three days on and 27 to have freedom of choice is pretty epic. Like, I thought I was systematized, but not like that.

Jld, there's literally, except for book promo, which I'm transparent right now, but come April of 2021, I'll go back to normal, which is essentially nothing on my calendar for 25 days, maybe a couple days. There's some things I've just batched together that I have to have like conversations about. And then just those three standard days of two Eofire interview days and one day of being on somebody else's show. And like, I love waking up and there's nothing on my, on my calendar. And it's not like there's nothing to do. You know, I'm still email communicating, doing social media. I'm still pushing balls forward that I need to do on different areas of my business. There's always projects, but it is on my schedule, like it is an open day.

Okay, people, people, first I wanted to say congrats on 89 months of consistent. I mean, consistency is one of your superpowers as well, we could say, but 89 in a row of 100k plus net profit. I mean, just the consistency of that is brilliant and incredibly difficult to achieve. I mean, I would never want to tell someone. Go ahead.

Yeah, let me touch on that real quick. Because a lot of people might look at our revenue and be like, okay, well that's obviously a huge number and that's like, impressive, which it totally is. But they might also say. Which they would be right in saying as well. Well, it seems like it's kind of been flatlined, John. Like you've been somewhere between 150 to 250,000 in revenue a month for essentially 89 months. I mean, we've had a couple anomaly months where we've been like at 500 or 600, but most by far are between 150 and 250. Like that's the, the real solid range where, you know, probably 70 plus percent is, are in that range. And so what does that kind of show like? There's not, there's not growth. It's not like up and to the right. Like, my revenue is not increasing month over month. It's not increasing year over year. But that's intentional. And by intentional I mean, like, would I take more money if I could get it? Yeah, of course. Like, I'm not against it because then I could do other things. I could give more to philanthropy. Like, I'm a big believer in earning as much money as you can and want to earn, but that's My point, like, I've got to the place where I have the team that I want, I have the lifestyle that I want, I have, you know, the business that I want, and I don't want to add on to that. And a lot of people just think more is more. And to me, more is not always more. In fact, more in this situation would be less because that would mean more people on my team, more time spent managing, more salary, more ad spends, more this, more that when I'm amazing. Right now I'm making a phenomenal, you know, dollar amount for 89 months in a row now I'm running the business I want to run. And more is actually less for me. Like, this is where I want to be and that's what I want people to get to through this book. You know, this book is going to get you to your version of uncommon success. And uncommon success for me is this. It's living in the Caribbean, keeping the money that I make because I only pay 4% tax and, you know, making 100, 150, 200, 250amonth. You know, give or take that range. I don't need to up that or to double that or to triple that. Again, I'll take it if it happens within my business, but I'm not going to reach for it. I'm not going to keep adding to my plate until it overflows, which happens to a lot of people, and then overwhelm and burnout and then the reset button happens. And I learned this from these 3,000 interviews I did because, Jenny, you were on one of the early interviews where the first 2,000 interviews, the first question I asked was, tell me your worst entrepreneurial moment. And it was some version of that early success, businesses growing more, more, more, more, more. Everything collapses. And I was like, I don't want that to happen to me. That's a huge lesson I took away. And that's why my business is what it is right now.

I am jumping for joy over here. And in fact, these quotes might just make it into the book because this is my entire philosophy of business. And you put it so brilliantly that more in this situation would be less. And the growth at all costs up into the right obsession drives me nuts. And I love that you are celebrating. Like, it almost made me angry when you said there were people who said, oh, John, you know, jlt, your revenue is staying relatively flat. Like, I'm proud of that.

You know, I'm proud of it.

God. Like, that's an achievement, is to get to this sustainable Joyful, as you would call it, zone of fire revenue. And to just grow at all costs for no effing reason other than to, like, lionize growth as the holy grail metric. It's just. Oh, I'm so glad. I'm so glad you just shared that same page.

Same page.

Jb, Way to go. Okay, last tiny question. As a recovering people pleaser. What if one of your heroes was like, I can only do, and it's outside of your batch day, and you even have to travel to go in person, acquire across Puerto Rico, Would you do it? Or are you at the point now and your boundaries are so clear that that's still a no?

Listen, I set my life up for lifestyle freedom. So I can say yes to amazing opportunities, to unique opportunities. I can say yes when Kate and I want to travel for 90 days a year in foreign countries, which we did for six years in a row. Like, I want to be able to say yes to all of those cool things and opportunities. So, like, if that situation presented itself, you know, I would look at it and I'd say, is this something I really want to do? If the answer is yes, I'm doing it. If the answer is no, I'm not doing it. So it's. It's just completely, you know, on a per opportunity basis. And again, I get great opportunities every day. I have a massive opportunity right now with one of the biggest entrepreneurial magazines. They literally wants me to be the face of the magazine, weekly contributor, podcast host, this and that, salary, you know, commission all these nine yards. Like, and five years ago, I would have been like, oh, my God, this is what I was waiting for to take me to the next level. Now I'm like, this is maybe not something I want to take on, because this would be a lot of work and bandwidth and it might not be what I'm looking for. So it's got to be yes in hell yes. And if it's not, it's a no.

I love it. And what you're describing too, is that freedom of choice. And I would feel the same way about that kind of opportunity, by the way. It really starts to take up your mental cycles, like, oh, now I have all these deadlines and I'm someone I'm reporting to, and you're good. Like, your life is set up where you have freedom of choice, like you said, not just freedom of time. So thank you for articulating this so clearly. Jld, thank you for being a guest. Of course. Listeners, check out the common path to uncommon success. A roadmap to Financial Freedom and Fulfillment. You can check out JLD's podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire and JLD. What else am I forgetting? Where do you want to send people?

This is the reality. We are going all out on this book. It is my culmination of the 3,000 interviews I've done over the past nine plus years. My personal, you know, journey as an entrepreneur where I've made massive mistakes, had massive successes and everything in between. And this is the 17 step roadmap to your financial freedom and fulfillment. Step one to step done. It is everything you need. It's every step explains every step with an exercise to get you to where you need to be. My personal application process of it and then one of the 3,000 guests that I've had on who best exemplifies that step I brought on for another amazing explanation slash advice slash perspective. So it's spectacular. For that reason. I mean we're talking the Amy Porterfields, the hal Elroz, Stu McLaren, Russell Brunson, Pat Flynn. I mean I went creme de la creme to pull these contributions in and they are amazing. Every single one of them.

Jld, I have one final question.

Sure. Let's hear it.

If you could give listeners permission to stop doing one thing in their business, what would it be?

Trying to be perfect Perfectionism will ruin you. Perfectionism flat out sucks. And when I see people trying to be perfect procrastination because they're trying to perfect X, Y or Z, it is ruining their life and it's ruining their business.

Well said. Thank you so much jld. Thank you everybody for listening. If you've listened this far, you get a gold star. Thank you. Word of mouth is the most joyful way we can grow this show and it helps us land interviews with the luminaries and insightful guests that you would most love to hear from. Please send this episode to a friend who might find it helpful and for show notes and related links from this episode, visit itsfreetime.com while you're there, make sure you're subscribed to the Time well Spent newsletter. You'll get instant access to my Tech Toolkit, a continually updated list of all the software I use, along with the total monthly spend to run my business where no one works full time, even me. Visit itsfreetime.com join remember, you are running the show. It's time for radical reimagining and and everything is up for grabs. Let it be easy, let it be fun, and build with love.