Today I had the opportunity to talk with one of my friends who I also consider a mentor John Lee Dumas. John is the host and founder of Entrepreneur on Fire, a free entrepreneurship podcast interviewing today’s most inspiring and successful entrepreneurs.
John has interviewed a lot of successful entrepreneurs, including Shark Tank’s very own Barbara Corcoran, famous authors like Set Godin, Tim Ferris and Chris Brogan — with an impressive list like that, it is safe to say that John have been learning from the best. And with more than 170 interviews and receiving well over 150,000 monthly unique downloads, it’s no secret that his show has become one of the best resources for entrepreneurs everywhere.
Today John is going to share his startup story, some business advice for new entrepreneurs and also the top 5 traits he believes that all his guests had in common.
Herby: Please tell us a little bit about yourself, your company and also how you started your business?
John Lee Dumas: Hi, John Lee Dumas here, Founder and Host of EntrepreneurOnFire, a business podcast that interviews today’s most inspiring and successful Entrepreneurs 7-days a week. EntrepreneurOnFire is a top ranked business podcast generating over 150,000 unique downloads a month in over 140 countries with a lineup of Barbara Corcoran, Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk, Guy Kawasaki, and hundreds more. EntrepreneurOnFire was created by an “AHA” moment. I saw there was a void that needed filling in the marketplace. There was a growing popularity of Podcasts and people were consuming content daily as they drove to work or hit the gym. At the time, no podcast was airing daily that shared the inspiring journeys of successful Entrepreneurs. That “AHA” led to the birth of EntrepreneurOnFire, and I have now produced over 200 shows and don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.
Herby: How is running an entrepreneurship podcast different than what you thought it would be?
John Lee Dumas: Running a podcast is a lot more fun than I thought it would be. Once you get the technical stuff down pat, you get into a groove of just having these great conversations and making these great connections with inspiring Entrepreneurs. The content creates itself, I am just along to make sure we keep the train on its tracks!
Herby: How do you separate yourself from your competitors and what makes EOF better or different?
John Lee Dumas: The daily show really does separate me from the crowd. Another separation factor is the fact that from day one, I have followed a format. I wanted my listeners to know what they were going to get each and every time they pressed the play button. Every story is unique, but at the same time you can really start to identify themes of why these Entrepreneurs have been so successful, and start applying them to your life.
Herby: What was the biggest problem you encountered with EOF and how did you overcome it?
John Lee Dumas: Getting over the fear and anxiety of talking to HUGELY successful Entrepreneurs such as Seth Godin, Barbara Corcoran, Gary Vaynerchuk, Tim Ferriss and others. I now know that they are just genuine people like the rest of us, and are happy to share their message with the world.
Herby: You have interviewed over 170 entrepreneurs on your show, in your opinion, can you share the top 5 traits they all had in common.
John Lee Dumas: I would say the top 5 Traits are
- Providing value first: If you lead your business with the desire to truly provide value first and foremost, everything else will fall into place
- Start. Stop procrastinating and giving yourself excuses. All great Entrepreneurs started way before they were ready to. If we wait to start heading towards our dreams, we will never get there. When I started interviewing Entrepreneurs, I was far from ready, but I started, slowly improved, and now have a huge listener base and a ton of helpful content available for free to people all over the world
- Ask for feedback. When you make assumptions about how the market will react to your product or service, that’s all it is, an assumption. Get your product in front of as many people in your target market as possible as early as possible and beg and plead for feedback so you can pivot to what they truly want.
- Be humble, be happy. In everything you do, always act humble and happy in every interaction. Life is a roller coaster, but the Entrepreneurial journey is the king roller coaster of them all. You never know when a past act of kindness will be what pulls you out of the valley’s you surely will face.
- Exercise and eat healthy. We lead crazy lives as Entrepreneurs, and we always need to make sure first and foremost we are treating our bodies right.
Herby: Please share some tips & advice for anyone looking to launch their own Podcast.
John Lee Dumas: When you are considering launching a podcast, you need to clearly define your avatar. Who are you speaking to? Who is your potential audience? Once you have clearly identified this, you will be able to go forward and create a show that will hold great appeal for them. If you are looking for a step by step guide, my book Podcast Launch is available in the Amazon store and comes with 15 video tutorials that take you through the technical parts of podcasting.
Herby: What was the top mistake you made starting out with your business and if you could start over what would you do differently?
John Lee Dumas: The top mistake I made when I started my business was thinking I needed to have everything perfectly aligned before I hit the go button. You will never have everything aligned, so hit the go button, and adjust on the fly!
Herby: What is one thing you know now that you wish you knew before launching Entrepreneur on Fire?
John Lee Dumas: I wish I knew what a welcoming and friendly group of people Entrepreneurs are. I hesitated in reaching out to people for a long time because I thought they would be too busy to interact with me. Boy was I wrong. The outpouring of advice and support I received from total strangers when I launched was overwhelming, and had I known it was there it would have take away a lot of the fear that Entrepreneurs feel when the envision they are all alone.
Herby: What are the top 3 most useful tools or resources you’re currently using to grow your business?
My top 3 Resources: WorkFlowy: TextExpander: Google Apps:
Herby: What’s your definition of success?
John Lee Dumas: Success: The gradual realization of a worthy goal.
