Ever wondered what it takes to podcast daily? John Lee Dumas reveals all.
In this episode of Influence By Design, Samantha sits down with JLD, the mastermind behind the first-ever daily podcast, Entrepreneurs on Fire.
From the initial spark and drive to be the change he wants to see, to managing daily episodes, he shares invaluable insights and chronicles that every aspiring podcaster and entrepreneur needs to hear.
Join us as we dive into the mind of a podcasting pioneer. John’s story and strategies will inspire you to take bold steps and ignite your path to success.
Tune in, take notes, and get ready to be fired up!
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:
- John delves into the early days of podcasting in 2012 and his unique but brave decision to release daily episodes (00:34)
- Secrets to maintaining a daily podcast (02:34)
- John reflects on his journey to success and the milestones that marked his path (05:46)
- The evolution of podcasting from 2012 to 2024 (06:59)
- The pros and cons of podcasting’s accessibility (08:41)
- Strategies that have kept Entrepreneurs on Fire at the top (10:27)
QUOTES
“I needed to become good. And to become good, you got to put in the reps. And the only way to put in the reps is to wake up every day and do that thing you want to become better at.” – John Lee Dumas
“I had to find a niche in the marketplace that was a void that was being ignored or not touched. And I had to find something that was really, really hard to replicate.” – John Lee Dumas
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ABOUT JOHN LEE DUMAS
John Lee Dumas is the founder & host of Entrepreneurs On Fire, an award-winning podcast where he interviews inspiring entrepreneurs to help YOU along your entrepreneurial journey.
He is also the author of The Common Path to Uncommon Success, your 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!
He has interviewed over 3,000 incredible entrepreneurs, including Tony Robbins, Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Barbara Corcoran, Tim Ferriss, and many more.
WHERE TO FIND JOHN LEE DUMAS
- Website: Entrepreneurs on Fire
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eofire/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnleedumas/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnleedumas1/
CONNECT WITH SAMANTHA RILEY
Facebook: Samantha Riley
Instagram: @thesamriley
LinkedIn: Samantha Riley
Twitter: @thesamriley
TRANSCRIPTION
Samantha Riley 0:03
Welcome to the show, John Lee Dumas. It is fabulous to have you here. Love it. I would like to, Oh, look at all the balloons. I listened to Entrepreneurs on Fire as the very first podcast I’ve ever heard. I’ve never heard a podcast before. So as a very early Fire Nation member, what I would love to know is, why did you decide to start a podcast so early? And why did you decide to go with daily episodes, because that’s a huge timestamp.
John Lee Dumas 0:34
So 2012 was a time when there weren’t that many podcasts in the world, it was still kind of a unique thing, the iPhone was just kind of starting to become this device that people were using for things like podcast listening. So that kind of became huge. And I started doing that, like I was a listener, I was a consumer, I was reading a ton of books on business, I was listening to a ton of audiobooks. It gets expensive to buy books and to listen to audio and buy audiobooks. And people said, Hey, podcasting, this free platform to listen to great stuff as well. And I remember listening to my first few and being like, man, you can really get a ton of value. It’s not so scripted, as a lot of these audiobooks are, which are really professional and edited. And the person that’s speaking the audio book is like really, you know, pedantic and it was good, but I really liked the kind of relaxing, chilled, laid back conversation that could happen because sometimes that was where the real gold was, was like in that kind of relaxed conversational time period. So I said, Man, I love this. And I just started consuming as much as I could. And I remember very clearly just saying, hey, I want to go find that podcast that releases a daily show. So that every day as I’m driving to work, I’m hitting the gym, I’m walking my dog, I can listen to a new interview of a successful entrepreneur. That show didn’t exist. I said, that’s crazy. I will be the change I want to see in the world. And I decided to launch the first, and to this day, still only daily podcast, interviewing the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.
Samantha Riley 2:11
How do you manage doing a daily show? Like, as a podcaster, I get it, why. I did try it for one month, because I wanted to do it as an experiment and see what happened. I can tell you my episodes, my downloads, and my listeners went through the roof. But I couldn’t keep it up. How do you manage to do that and keep it up on a daily, you know, show?
John Lee Dumas 2:34
I was interested in becoming successful as a podcaster. And if you want to become successful as a podcaster, there’s a few variables that need to come true. Number one, you need to become good at podcasting, at communicating, at having conversations, facilitating, asking questions, interviewing, being the interviewer. I had none of those skills. How was I going to become good at doing that four days per month, which is what most people were doing with their podcast, one day per week, like, they were good at doing it, because they may be doing it for a while, they have some prior skills or whatever it might be, but I wasn’t. So I needed to become good. And to become good, you got to put in the reps. And the only way to put in the reps is to wake up every day and do that thing you want to become better at. Did Kobe Bryant become one of the best basketball players of all time by practising four days a month? You know, same thing with Tiger Woods, any sports athlete, you look at, like they became great, because they put in the reps for a long, long time. So to me daily was the only way I was going to succeed. Number one because I had to get good. Number two, because I had to find a niche in the marketplace that was a void that was being ignored or not touched. And I had to find something that was really, really hard to replicate. Like that’s what people don’t understand. Everybody’s launching businesses that are really easy to replicate. So even if you have a good idea, and you’re quote unquote first to market, which is important on some levels, if you’re successful, it’s going to be a wave of people that are flooding in. If it’s not hard, you got to build a high barrier. I always say the higher the barrier, the lower the competition. The problem is people are like, Oh man, that’d be too hard to do. I shouldn’t do that. Well, it’s because you think it’s too hard to do. You need to do it like when my mentor and my mastermind leader both told me daily podcast will be too hard to pull off. I said, Man, the best people in the industry are telling me it can’t be done. And I’ll find a way to do it. That’s the opportunity because I will own that space just like Amazon committed back in the day to owning the space of being The everything store, like that was gonna be their name by the way before Amazon was The Everything Store. I didn’t know that. Yeah, that was gonna be their name, but then they wanted to have a little more branding to it. So they came up with the great brand of Amazon, of course. But it was going to be The Everything Store and like they knew it would be so hard to do. But that’s why, like, you can’t replicate that. And they have such an advantage now. So that’s why and that’s why I think when people are thinking about their podcast or their business or their next venture, it needs to be hard.
Samantha Riley 5:22
It needs to be hard, because not everyone can do it. Right. So was there a time in the journey, or was there a moment where you thought, Oh, my goodness, I’ve actually, I’ve actually made it or this is a successful show, or I feel like, you know, I am that podcaster that you were talking about, you know, that really good interviewer? Or was there a moment where you’re like, I’ve done it?
John Lee Dumas 5:46
So there’s never been I’ve made it moment, because I really do believe that you’ve never made it. Like that’s like, the game is over. Like, if you are, you know, at your own funeral, because somebody is giving a eulogy about you. They can then say that person made it like they made it, they did this, they were successful. I did have like an I’m making it moment like, you know, making it meaning, I am crushing it. I’m doing great. I’m on a fantastic path. And that was about 13 months in, you know, we had our first six figure month, low, low six figures. But I was like, wow, I am literally just doing a podcast. And in one month, I’m making six figures of revenue. This is proving to me that I’m making it. I don’t know how long this is going to last. But man, I’m making it and I’ll tell you, that was 129 months ago, and we haven’t had a month under six figures since then.
Samantha Riley 6:45
Love it. I love it so much. So how much has podcasting changed between 2012 to, we’re recording this in 2024, what’s changed for you in that time?
John Lee Dumas 6:59
Well, what’s changed in podcasting specifically is completely jumped the shark. And like, I don’t even know if I’m using that phrase correctly. I know it’s an old Happy Days reference of when Fonzie literally jumped a shark when he was water skiing. And they were like, alright, the show’s over. Like he is too ridiculous. So that’s kind of where that phrase came from, which is pretty funny. But you know, for me, it went from nobody really knowing about podcasting, thinking it was a very fringe, weird techy way of listening to stuff, to now, and I mean, literally, everybody has a podcast that wants their voice out there in the world. Not everybody has a podcast, but everybody that wants their voice out in the world has a podcast, from comedians, to actors to, you know, philanthropists, to whoever it might be. If you want your voice out in the world, you have a podcast. I mean, now you’re watching any TV show, any movie, reading any book, it’s all podcast this podcast that, like it’s just now, literally, it’s assumed. If you have any clout in this world whatsoever, you have a podcast, which I can so clearly remember, like in 2014 15,16, like if Kate and I heard the word podcast mentioned, on any kind of like traditional media, like we flipped out, and usually was people making fun of it. But like, it was still crazy that they would even make fun of it. Like I can’t even believe they would make fun of podcasting, that’s nuts. So it’s just become now something that everybody’s doing, the barrier’s so low to do a podcast. It is what it is, everybody’s doing it.
Samantha Riley 8:37
Do you think that’s a good thing that the barrier to entry is so low?
John Lee Dumas 8:41
It’s a good thing. And it’s a bad thing. It’s a good thing if you understand that, hey, the barrier to start a podcast is low. But the barrier to creating an amazing podcast that gets any kind of success or traction is unbelievably high, and much more difficult than it used to be because of the saturation in the market. So now I tell people hey, you know, they always come to John, why is my podcast struggling? I say, because you have the same people other people have on their show, you ask them the same questions, they give you the same answers. And your show’s the exact same as everybody else’s. And that’s never going to win. If you are a podcaster, and again, this goes for literally every entrepreneur as well starting a business, if you can’t look in the mirror and say I am solving this problem better than anybody else, you are going to lose because your podcast, your business idea, your product, your service, whatever it might be, it must be the number one solution to a real problem in this world. If it’s not, you will lose. If it is, you have a chance of winning because people will beat a path to the doorstep of the number one solution, and to a real problem they have. They won’t listen to the second best podcast interview, entrepreneur, because it’s been done.
Samantha Riley 10:09
So what is one of the best strategies that you’ve specifically used in your podcast that has moved the needle? And, and not the daily, because obviously, we’ve already covered that. What is some of the, I guess that one thing, that is the thing that’s moved the needle?
John Lee Dumas 10:27
The most I’ve committed to continuing to keep my finger on the pulse of my listeners, and really saying, You know what, I’m going to continue to engage them and ask them what they like, what they don’t like, how they’re finding the show. What are they struggling with right now, like, those four questions are always coming out of my mouth when I’m interacting on email or social media with my listeners, because that’s how you keep your finger on the pulse and you keep your show new and fresh. And that’s why, you know, frankly, when I hit episode 2000, which was years and years ago, I’ve been hearing from my audience like John, like, show’s great, but you’ve been asking the same six questions for eight years now, which I had. And that was my niche. And it worked for eight years. But I started to kind of get the energy and the vibe from my listeners that, you know, maybe it’s time to spice things up a little bit. So I did and now for the last 2000 episodes, we’ve, you know, created a different show as a result. It’s got a lot of similarities and a lot of differences as well. And so that finger on the pulse of your avatar, the perfect consumer of your content, whether that be a product, a service, a podcast, fill in the blank, that’s the key.
Samantha Riley 11:34
I love it so much. So definitely go listen to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Daily episodes, have been around for over two and a half thousand episodes I’ve got but is it even more than that?
John Lee Dumas 11:44
4,364.
Samantha Riley 11:47
Wowzers, congratulations. That’s so fantastic. Thanks for being on our show at 680 episodes.
John Lee Dumas 11:57
That’s impressive. That puts you in the top 1%. You should be proud of that.
Samantha Riley 12:01
Thank you very much. Appreciate it. It’s been great to have you on the show.
John Lee Dumas
Awesome. Adios.
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