74 – Entrepreneur on Fire: Tom interviews John Lee Dumas

Episode 074 – John Lee Dumas
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:26] Hey Everybody. It's Tom here with episode 74 of screw the commute podcast. We have one of the most prolific podcasters on today. His name is John Lee Dumas from entrepreneur on fire. Tell you about him in a moment. I hope you didn't miss episode 73 where I gave you a 30 speaking tips in 30 point to 7 8 12 14 minutes. I don't know it was it wasn't too long. It wasn't that short but it was pretty quick and those tips will really help you if you want to be great at business presentations or keynote speaking or whatever speaking you like. Now our podcast app is now in the App Store. So check out screwthecommute.com in the App Store and iTunes and it does all kinds of cool stuff for you so you'll be able to save your favorite episodes and a whole bunch of stuff. And we have training actually on how to use all the features at screwthecommute.com. All right. Our sponsor today is the American entrepreneur film and I am proud to say that I am not dead. Or as Mark Twain said the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. See the film is celebrating American entrepreneurship and I'm really really honored to be chosen by the Hollywood producer who's produced thirty eight documentaries on Olympic athletes and all kinds of people and chose me to be the American entrepreneur and also it kind of highlights my dad coming in from Syria back in the early nineteen hundreds and as an entrepreneur and then turned me into an entrepreneur and I've helped thousands of entrepreneurs so so watch for that you can check out the well it's going to premiere I think in the middle of 2019 but you can check out the trailer at Facebook.com/Americanentrepreneurfilm and that'll be in the show notes and please stop over watch the trailer like the page and leave a comment I'll respond to you personally or maybe even the director and producer Terri Marie of Hollywood will chime in.

[00:02:52] All right let's get to the main event. JOHN LEE Dumas is the host of entrepreneur on fire and award winning podcast where he interviews inspiring entrepreneurs every Monday and drops value bombs every Thursday with over two thousand episodes one point three million listeners every month and seven figures of annual revenue. They call him JLD is just getting started so visit EOfire.com to set your entrepreneurial journey on fire. So John are you ready to screw let's ignite and screw at the same time. Now that is hot. So. Oh. So how are you man.

[00:03:39] Great thanks for asking.

[00:03:40] Yes. So I'll tell you what I got to start this. This show out with thanking you for your service I do not think that the service people that go bust their butt for us get enough. Thanks and I'm gonna be the first one to thank you today.

[00:03:56] Tom I appreciate the appreciation brother.

[00:04:00] 13 months in Iraq. Yeah it's fun like a sandy vacation. Right. So tell everybody you know we've got a lot of new entrepreneurs on here. Hey I tell you what. I'm gonna get into your background a little bit but tell everybody what being in the army what traits helped you in your business now.

[00:04:25] I say number one is discipline because being a soldier and being an officer leading four tanks 16 men in a wartime environment in Iraq it really led me to just have this vast appreciation for discipline because when lives are really on the line and you step out of bounds and you don't fall into line with X and Y with Z you're literally putting lives at stake. So you know training hard following orders being consistent showing up doing all the things right that add up to being a disciplined officer in the U.S. Army really opened my eyes and saying well what if I took these traits and apply them to the real world and not to get into too deep a detail. But when I first had my introduction into corporate America with John Hancock as an internal variable annuities guy I was like man I cannot believe how undisciplined ninety nine point nine percent of people in corporate America are and I immediately became in the top 5 percent of sales the entire company not because I was good at what I did or because I was this like genius. It's just because I just showed up every day before anybody else and I had a plan of action. I was disciplined and I executed on that. And that was it. I was the first person out the door every single day 458 you saw my buddy walking out that door. But I was still in the top 5 percent because I was disciplined when I was there.

[00:05:53] Yeah. And that's what I got was that consistency and persistency is the key. That is it might not huh. So I want to talk about that law school gig. I mean I am not even smart enough to get past the LSAT. And I understand you did all the hoops to get into law school and then dropped out. What was the feeling going on in your mind.

[00:06:22] Crushed the LSATs and again back to. I was not a smart guy. I am not a smart guy but I was disciplined every single day for two months. I woke up and I paid twelve hundred dollars for the Kaplan exam and I took a a test a sample LSAT exam every day for two months and so that when I sat down for the actual LSATs it was just like I had been doing this for two months because guess what I had been. And that was the reason why I was able to make it happen wasn't the first time I looked at the LSATs when I sat down for it which was for most people in that room. It was the very first time and they didn't know what they were doing and so although they were smarter and could have definitely executed better than me had they had the chance they didn't and so I went to law school you know my dad's a lawyer uncles grandparents and not just the whole family thing.

[00:07:12] I was wondering why you did this.

[00:07:14] That was why I thought was next logical step and you know make the family proud at the same time like win wins all around. And I just hated it. I mean it just wasn't me having to apply old law to new situations and not detail oriented that did not lead to my strengths whatsoever and not to mention you know I was dealing with a little bit of PTSD at the time because I was just fresh out of the army and trying to transition in the civilian world so just a bad combination for me and I just knew I needed to pull the trigger and just get out. And so I was only in for one semester and I think that one good take away that I want to share right now is the sunk cost fallacy. Like do you know Tom how many lawyers are out there right now that just like me did one semester of law school and just like me absolutely hated it and hated the idea of becoming a lawyer but said oh you know what I spent a few months and a few thousand dollars for this law school degree I guess I'm a lawyer for the rest of my life. It's the biggest mistake doctors do it. Dentists do it. You fill in the blank. Everybody does it. The sunk cost fallacy. You let it ruin your life. When the flip side every day is a brand new day so cut your losses. Learn from the past but don't let the past dictate your future and execute going for what you want to do.

[00:08:33] Yeah and I don't know the numbers but I do get a lot of my programs just you know just hate what they're doing.

[00:08:40] 88 percent. That's the numbers. Sad.

[00:08:42] Yeah. So. So you spent about six years. I don't want to call it floundering but it's almost like you you've portrayed it as that.

[00:08:51] I want to call it floundering because I was direct and I went from law school to corporate finance to real estate from Boston to New York to San Diego. I mean I was just like just this fish out of water just flopping around trying something seeing if it's stuck. And it didn't. And that was a six year process.

[00:09:07] I read some statistics that 98 percent of the people in the corporate world want to be entrepreneurs but hardly anybody does anything about it. So what would be what were you feeling at that time and then what finally made the leap for you.

[00:09:22] I was feeling scared lost lack of direction and lack of passion for anything that I was doing.

[00:09:27] Were you married at the time.

[00:09:28] No I still am not gonna spend thirty nine years on this planet and have avoided that but I have a very lovely girlfriend who we've been not together and committed for 8 years. I definitely agree with committed relationships but that's where it stops and I was just you know I'm just not excited about anything work wise that I was doing and so of course I wasn't successful either and so that's when I started to say hey it's time to actually start consuming content from people who have maybe figured this out figured out that you don't have to go through life living for Saturday and dreading Monday. And so that was me and I started reading the books listening to the audiobooks was you know that led me to listen to podcasts and that kind of set me free so to speak and that was seven years ago now and I haven't looked back since.

[00:10:18] Did you have any kind of financial stability from a pension from the service or anything to help you in the transition.

[00:10:22] This is my deal. I went to college for free because of my Army ROTC scholarship. A graduate with no debt. My parents I saved up about 30 thousand dollars for my education of which I used nothing so they basically said hey because you got a scholarship this money is still yours because it was in my 529 plan. So the money was mine. So I was able to essentially at 22 years old have about thirty thousand dollars and no debt in my pocket which is obviously a great place to be. But then as often the U.S. Army you make ok money for that age I mean you know I was making like maybe 40 then 50 than 60 than 70 thousand dollars over those four years. But one of the beautiful things about those four years was during that 30 month tour of duty in Iraq that you mentions you don't pay any tax you still get your housing allowance and you can't spend any money. So I got back from that with like over a hundred thousand dollars now in total savings so the 70 plus what I was able to save over my four years as an officer. So here I am at 26 with about one hundred thousand dollars a little more maybe maybe 120 in the bank no debts and having the opportunity to do things like try Law School and quit try corporate finance and I was in corporate finance by the way for a year and a half. It wasn't like a flash in the pan but then it just wasn't for me. And then real estate and tried to support myself there and at 32 I was like man I have no more financial net worth at 32 than I did at 26. This is a trend I don't want to keep going. Let's really try to break this mold. And that's when I launched into entrepreneurship.

[00:12:01] And the podcast wasn't successful for about nine months right.

[00:12:05] Depending on your definition of success it was very successful from day one because day one it launched and it had over 3000 listens and I continued to be a to build off that listenership. And was it financially successful. Absolutely not. And for the first six months it was almost no revenue coming in from any way shape or form. A little bit here a little bit there but just nothing to write home about or be sustainable as a business. But at the seventh month timeframe was when I first was starting to get approached by sponsors and once a sponsorship game came in that put me to the low five figures per month meaning I was netting about 12 K per month. At that point from the podcast and then from there I just started to add more revenue streams a mastermind a course a community. And so that by the one year point I was at six figures a month and that was sixty three months ago. And since then and we've been putting out a monthly income report and we haven't had a month under one hundred thousand dollars net profit. So first six months success as far as building an audience no success as far as financial. But from 6 months to 12 months built it up into a six figure net profit business that we haven't dipped under since then.

[00:13:28] And even at the time I understand some of your mentors were telling you you were crazy to do a daily run.

[00:13:35] I'm just crazy do it daily because they were running very successful weekly show and it was them a ton of time energy and effort and they were barely able to do other things. And so that's when I said something that I think anybody listening could use a value as if some of the best people in your industry say that it can't be done and you figure out a way to do it. Wow that's an opportunity.

[00:13:56] I don't know if you coined this term or not but the unique value distinguisher UVD. You coined that or is it like a spinoff of a USP or what.

[00:14:06] It is a kind of a spin off a USP that really like the USP so I wanted to make it my own and make it different because it just wasn't exact rush trying to convey. So that's where I kind of spun that off. I liked the acronym I like the unique part of it but I wanted it to be you know something different. You know I wanted to be a value distinguisher you're not you know whatever it was whatever USP means. So it wasn't up for me wasn't about selling. It was about what's the value. So I wanted it to be the unique value distinguisher. And that's where I coined that many many years ago and have been using ever since.

[00:14:44] Yeah I know you. I was just thinking about the discipline is there getting up 530 and your seven minute workout.

[00:14:53] Once I crush it my my morning routine is so amazing. So I have twenty five interviews today of which you're one and I'm watching this chat. This is my one day a month I do interviews and other shows. So I was starting my calls at 9 a.m. and so up at 530 I'm doing a great 16 ounce glass of water with lemon and Himalayan sea salt that I'm down in my gym. I did a twenty five minute killer hit training high intensity training with my virtual trainer which I use on Zoom.

[00:15:25] So you graduated from the seven minute thing.

[00:15:28] I went I took it to the next level I don't want to lock virtual trainer then I sit in my sauna for 30 minutes and just sweat it out and then I'm out by my pool I'm meditating I'm reading and I am breathe doing some breathing exercises for the next 30 minutes while I'm taking in the amazing Puerto Rico Vitamin D sun that I shower that I get to my office after that 90 minutes amazing morning routine and nothing can stop me.

[00:15:53] Well it's sure working for you You're considered one of the top podcasters in the world you still have your a free class that people could take advantage of.

[00:16:01] Freepodcastcourse.com I wanted to really trick people and make it hard to remember.

[00:16:11] I understand it's really great that there's what the twenty thousand people or something.

[00:16:20] Well we have over 55000 who have gone through it over the course the last four years.

[00:16:25] Yeah. So. So if you want to learn folks do podcasts again I pooh poohed it for a long time because people weren't making any money. But yeah it's it's totally different now especially with the new cars going to be able to listen to a podcast and the Alexa.

[00:16:45] I'm in Pandora beta a program right now. Better soon to be releasing it to the world that's going to be amazing. So yeah podcasting was definitely an area where most people I was one of the few few few people from an early on. Back in 2012 2013 who were actually turning a profit from podcasting. So I definitely don't disagree with your initial pooh poohing idea but it's deftly turned into a medium that is just this platform of convenience meaning when you're driving your car when you're working out when you're folding laundry when you're weeding your garden is a time that you can listen to content without having to do other things and it's that great niche that podcasting fits. That really makes it valuable.

[00:17:30] John thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us. I'm sure inspired people to go out and do their UVD. So thanks so much man. And I'm sure people are going to run over and sign up for that free course.

[00:17:47] You're a stud, Tom.

[00:17:47] Okay, catch ya later man.

[00:17:51] That was John Lee Dumas. And he's got some great stuff for you that free podcasting course is great. And lots of people 55000 people have taken it. So go over there and check it out and it'll be in the show notes also. And don't forget to check out the American entrepreneur film at Facebook.com/Americanentrepreneurfilm and watch the trailer leave us like the page and leave a comment so that me or the producer director can say hello to you. All right. Also remember to join our private Facebook group. Check it out at screwthecommute.com/Facebook. All of this stuff is always in the show notes. This is episode 74 screwthecommute.com/74 and please leave us a review at iTunes and leave us a star rating if you like this and subscribe and pass it around for me. Really appreciate it. Catch y'all in the next episode.

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