Bonus: Guest Teacher John Lee Dumas – Master Productivity, Discipline & Focus

Let me tell you about Intuit QuickBooks. When I was starting out my business, I remember sitting at my desk late at night, not working on my business, but cleaning up numbers, tracking and reconciling payments and wondering how this became my life. But once I automated the admin side of things, of my finances, those nights had disappeared and I felt a whole lot better. Outdo it with Intuit QuickBooks. QuickBooks is the trusted end to end solution that businesses rely on for getting paid, managing finances, paying employees, finding new customers and more. QuickBooks provides a team of AI agents and trusted experts. So doing it yourself no longer means doing it alone. Their payment agent gets you paid faster, their customer agent finds leads, follows up and secures more sales, and the accounting agent automates and categorizes transactions. Get your critical business jobs done with QuickBooks on the Intuit platform.

Ready to save on new tech? It's time for Dell Tech Day's annual sales event celebrating our customers with fantastic deals and benefits. Product perks include Dell rewards, free shipping, premium Support and more. PCs like the Dell 14 with Intel Core Ultra processors will help you do more faster and with a premium suite of monitors and accessories, you can upgrade your whole setup with amazing savings. Visit Dell.com deals.

Hey O. Welcome to the $100 MBA show and today is a bonus episode Guest Teacher lesson with John Lee Dumas. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar MBA and webinar Ninja. And in today's lesson, guest teacher John Lee Dumas, the founder and host of Entrepreneur on Fire, the Hit business podcast is going to be teaching you a very important lesson, how to master productivity, discipline and focus. I can't think of a better person to teach this lesson because John embodies these skills. If you know John or spend any time with him, you know for a fact that he walks the talk when it comes to productivity, discipline and focus. And these are the essential elements for any successful entrepreneur. It's like I say, to get things done, you have to get things done right. You gotta actually accomplish them and you can't do them without the right productivity, the right discipline, the right focus. So in today's lesson, John's going to show you how. Let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Not only is John Lee Dumas the founder of Entrepreneur on Fire and the host of the hit podcast Entrepreneur on Fire, he's also the founder of the largest podcasting community, Podcasters paradise, but as of late he's been working on some passion projects. Last year, he released a journal called the Freedom Journal. It was one of the most successful books on Kickstarter ever, and for good reason. I have a copy of the Freedom Journal and an outline, step by step, how to achieve a goal within a hundred days. Off that success, John is releasing a new book called the Mastery Journal. And in this book, you'll learn how to master productivity, discipline, and focus. In 100 days. You can learn more@themasteryjournal.com but in today's lesson, John's going to teach you the fundamentals behind this book. You can take these fundamentals and implement them right away. And if you want to continue your mastery over productivity, discipline and focus, then pick up the Mastery Journal at themasteryjournal. Com. I don't want to take more time away from John because he's got a great lesson in store for you. Take it away, John.

Hey. And what's happening, my friends? Jon Lee Dumas here. And as Omar said, I am the founder and host of EO Fire, which is the other daily podcast, dropping value bombs seven days a week. And thank you for joining me today. Cause I'm going to be teaching you how to master productivity, how to master discipline, and how to to master focus in 100 days. So let's get down to business. So, my friends, the word productivity gets thrown around a lot. And I want to kind of clear that space up a little bit today. Because the way that you need to be looking at productivity is are you producing the right content that is moving your business, your life, to that next level? Are you producing enough quantity of content? Are you producing the right quality of content? These are questions that you need to be asking yourself every single day, every quarter. I do a little productivity check on my business. And I look back over the past three months and I say, what have I been doing every single day? What's been working for me? What's been moving my business forward? What's been generating revenue? What's been driving traffic? What's been making sales and leads happen for EO Fire? I look at those things and I say, you know what? That's me producing the right content. That's me saying, this is the right quality of content because my audience is reacting positively towards it. And it's also the right quantity, the right consistency. These are two key ingredients that you must always be evaluating. And again, for me, it's every three months, I look back and I say, what content am I producing that's working how can I amplify that? How can I turn up the volume there and do more of that? And just the same, I look at what's not working, where I'm struggling, and just what's not producing results, and I just turn that faucet off and I stop spending time, energy and bandwidth there. And you can too, because for me, producing a daily podcast, writing very consistent emails, being on Snapchat, Instagram stories, these are great uses of my time. When I produce quality content consistently, when that happens, I am being productive in the right way. So evaluate your business every single day on the micro level and then every three months on that macro level so you can consistently be tweaking and adjusting so that you are being productive in the right areas. Okay, now let's move into the area of discipline. And I will say I have a little bit of an advantage here. Being an army Veteran, I spent eight years as an officer in the US army, four active, four in the reserves, and I even did a 13 month tour of duty in Iraq. So I learned how important and valuable discipline is. Now, to break it down to the core form discipline is you waking up in the morning, setting a plan and executing that plan, having those steps that you need to act upon throughout your day to accomplish something meaningful. So for me, the beginning of every day is me sitting down and writing action steps that I will follow. And that if I execute those steps, I will accomplish something meaningful and important in my business and then having the discipline to stick to that plan. The key thing that you can do here to improve your discipline is to actually write down these steps. Don't just have them floating around in your head. That doesn't mean anything. Taking a pen, putting it to paper, visually writing down these steps, that's imprinting it in your mind. And then you will be drawn like a magnet to accomplish every one of those steps that's going to lead you to accomplishing your goal of the day. And that is such a critical step for you to take. Starting with writing down your plan, sticking to those action steps, and accomplishing your daily goal. Okay, now we're gonna talk about focus. And this happens to be my favorite acronym in the world. I believe this comes from Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And the acronym for focus is follow one course until success. My friends, we live in a world where the bright shiny object syndrome is everywhere. Look, there's a squirrel. And then we chase it. But the reality is this, the weapons of mass distract will sink your ship if you let it. Once you've had the discipline to actually write down your plan. Now put the blinders on and focus on that execution. Focus. That's following one course until success. And once you've accomplished that, once you have achieved quote unquote success on that one focus, then guess what? Give yourself a break. You give yourself some kind of reward. You know, maybe then you do give yourself 10 minutes to jump into Facebook or to check out WhatsApp or whatever it might be. But that's only after you followed that one course until success. That is Focus. What happens when you don't focus? When you don't focus, you fall into something that I call opa. That's other people's agenda. So many people live their lives on other people's agenda. They wake up, they jump in their inbox and other people are sending messages to you, they're sending requests, they're asking for help, for favors, for direction. And guess what? Those are their agendas. And it's good to help people out to build relationships. Absolutely. But not with your most valuable time, energy and bandwidth of the day. You need to start your day on your. You need to put those blinders on, focus on what is going to matter to you, to your life in your business, and execute. Don't get on OPA until later in the day. Then you can just kind of go into cruise control mode and follow other people's agenda all day long. But you need to dictate your day. You need to be on your agenda when you're at your most creative, when you're at your best. And that is first thing in the morning. So focus. Follow one course until success.

ClickUp just solved AI's biggest problem and it's saving 4 million teams from productivity loss every day. Unlike ChatGPT and other AI tools, ClickUp converges all your work into one platform so your AI super agents have full context to prioritize tasks, execute workflows and draft documents instantly. Teams using ClickUp finish work 30% faster and cut meetings in half. Try ClickUp for free today and get 15% off AI upgrades@ClickUp.com podcast that's C L I C K U looking for a Valentine's gift she'll truly love? 1-800-flowers.com knows what she wants. For 50 years, 1-800-flowers has helped guys like you get it right. Delivering millions of fresh Valentine's roses nationwide. 1-800-Flowers offers premium fresh cut flowers backed by their seven day freshness guarantee plus same day delivery when you need them on time. Valentine's is coming up and bouquets are selling fast. So don't wait on this order today at 1-800-flowers.com sxm. That's 1-800-flowers. Com sxm.

Now, there are two principles that I want to run by you real quick before we end this lesson. The first is the Pomodoro Method. When I said follow that one course until success, you have to give yourself a time limit. Otherwise you won't be nearly as efficient as you could be. Personally, I love the Pomodoro method where I use 42 minutes of focus time and then 18 minutes of quote unquote refresh time where I step back from the computer. Maybe I do some pull ups or some jumping jacks or I just go for a quick walk around the house, grab a snack, do something, you know, just deep breathe for five minutes, whatever it might be during that 18 minute refresh time and then I'm back at it. So the Pomodoro method is so key for me to focus for those 42 minutes and to really be disciplined, to stick to my plan. And guess what? I produce great content. See what I did there? And the other principle that I want to share with you is Parkinson's Law. And that's just a phrase that just really hammers home the importance of the Pomodoro method and that Parkinson's law states tasks will expand to the time allotted. If you allot two hours to do something, it's gonna take you two hours. So get specific about what your focus time is going to be and then stick to it. So let's do a quick recap, my friends. Productivity. Are you producing the right quality content at the right consistency? That's something you have to be aware of every single day. Disciplined. Are you actually setting a plan at the beginning of the day and then those steps to actually execute something that's going to mean something for you and your business? I hope so. And then of course, focus. Are you following one course until success? Are you utilizing stuff like the Pomodoro method to make this a reality again? I hope so too. And my friends, if you want to take this learning to the next level, I've created a stunning hardcover journal called the Mastery Journal. Master Productivity Discipline and focus in 100 days, it will incorporate the Pomodoro method and Parkinson's law. And the power of taking pen and putting it to paper is going to be what you need to take your business and your life to the next level. And we have a really exciting Kickstarter campaign running until February 24, 2017, where you can get some Great deals on your Mastery Journal. So hustle on over to themasteryjournal.com to learn more. And hey, this is a podcast. This is Evergreen. So if you are listening after February 24th of 2017, no worries, head over to themasteryjournal.com because that is still the place where you can invest in your mastery Journal so that you can master productivity, so that you can master discipline, so that you can master focus in 100 days. Thanks again for joining me. And back to you, Omar.

What a solid, solid lesson by John Lee Dumas. You could just hear in his voice his passion for this topic and how comfortable he is teaching it because he knows it inside and out. I love the point he makes about focus. Making sure that you focus on what's important during your productive hours. It's not only important to know this, it's to practice this, it's to remember it when it matters most, when you're supposed to be working, when you're supposed to be focused. And this is what John is trying to do with the Mastery Journal to be a great companion for you along the journey. To pick up a copy, just go to themasteryjournal.com you can also check out his podcast, EO Fire, where he hosts a daily interview business podcast. Interesting fun fact, John is actually a Best of itunes winner too, which is kind of rare because they don't give out this award to a lot of people. But he won in 2013 and we won it in 2014. So thank you, John, for paving the way for us. Alright guys, that wraps up today's lesson. Thank you so much for listening and subscribing and leaving your itunes ratings and reviews. Make sure you tune in on Monday where we give you part two of our two part lesson. We had part one yesterday on how to relaunch a product. Part two comes to you next Monday. Make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss a beat. All right, before I go, I want to leave you with this. Being good at anything, being great at anything, be it a business person, entrepreneur, a product builder. It requires you to have a great set of habits, good habits. You have to always be on your guard. You have to make sure your habits are on point. And this is what John was talking about in today's lesson. With discipline and focus and productivity, take a look at your daily routine. Take a look at what you're doing every single day, day in and day out. What are your habits like? Are they contributing to your success or are there some things that you can tweak to improve your success or your chances of success. Most of us can tweak some things, including myself. But I find it helpful to think that it's all about habits. What kind of habits do I have and if I can change those habits. Think about habits is that they're consistent and they build upon each other. So anything you do consistently can either, you know, build you or bring you down. If they're good habits, they'll build you. If they're bad habits, they'll bring you down. So make sure you have the right habits because they can greatly affect your success or your failure. All right. I hope that helps and hope to see you on Monday's episode. See you then. Take care. Of.

They say if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together. At Amica Insurance, we're built for our customers and prioritize your needs. Visit amica.com and get a quote today.