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John Lee Dumas has been podcasting on his Entrepreneur On Fire podcast since July, 2012. For the past year, he has made a 6-figure income from podcasting and he is just getting started. In this podcast, we get to know John and what his background was like and how he got into Entrepreneurship.

Originally, I wanted to do a podcast about “podcasting”, however, I thought I’d like you hear from my friend, John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire on how he has done it. In the future, I will make sure to give you a glimpse into my journey as a podcaster as well. For now, lets hear it from John!

How do you develop this entrepreneur spirit? How did you develop it?

Back in 2006 he left the army and it took him a full 6-years to find his niche or passion. He thought he was going to be a lawyer, or a partner in a commercial real estate company. When he finally had his eyes open to the opportunities out there on the Internet, in 2012, he founded his business and now his podcast is being listened to in over 145 countries and is downloaded over 250K per month.

Tell us a little bit about your success habits to keep your mind focused?

John believes that it’s a condition that affects many Entrepreneurs. Johns main core believe is focus, rising early to get that power focus. Then he dives right in with his coffee in hand no later than 7am and from that point he has a very strict schedule and he does not go to web sites or wastes his time on things not on his list.

For his podcast schedule, every single Monday he does between 8-10 interviews and his friends, family know not to call or contact him. By the end of the day, he is done and drained and the rest of the week he has his rigorous schedule. He believes in batching and scheduling.

Tell me about some of the biggest mistakes early on?

Some of the mistakes he made was not sticking to his believe and his goals. He knew that it was so obvious that there was a need for a daily podcast and he had that inspiration. He later reached out to mentors and coaches and a lot of people and the vast majority did not see or understand that he could do it. As a result, that affected him which he later recovered from. He let their doubts question himself. Once he reached out to certain podcasters and bloggers that he respected, Entrepreneur On Fire became a huge success.

What is the future of EntrepreneurOnFire and what is your exit strategy?

John realizes that exit strategies are important but at this point, he does not have it. He is pouring his entire heart into it such as books, podcasts, and masterminds, consulting. He loves giving away free content to create this dream and for now, it is him and his team to work on that vision.

What is your full monetization strategy?

John currently makes through his sponsorship  which consists of Audible, Legalzoom, Squarespace and 99 Designs to name a few. Each sponsor gets 15 seconds in the pre-role and 60 seconds somewhere in the middle. He has a maximum of 2 sponsors per episode and he makes somewhere around $350 per episode. He also has a podcasting book called Podcast Launch and also makes money through his web site using affiliate links.

Do you invest your money or buy a lot of toys?

John currently saves the money and grows it in the bank and he wants to invest in his own business and in the future he may do stocks or other things like that.

How did you get interviews with Seth Godin and Tim Ferris?

It wasn’t really easy. It was about building the foundation. When he decided he wanted to podcast, he reached out and invested in himself and he got the Jaime Tardy  of Eventual Millionaire to coach him for $1000 a month. Sure enough, just a few days after, he went down to Blog World where she was speaking and low and behold all the people he was interested in were speaking too. Now – because he went with Jamie Tardy, he got into all the after parties as well which opened many doors for him to mingle with successful Entrepreneurs he was interested in interviewing.

The story then got even more interesting when he got Pat Flynn, Corbet barr and Derek Halpern just to name a few, on board. Once he had these names, he went back to his office and decided to reach out to other people and told them about his exciting line up. This not only built social proof for him but also paved the way for his career. six months into attending blog world, John was asked to speak at the same event he went to meet these Entrepreneurs while being a mentee for Jaime Tardy of Eventual Millionaire.

How come some people get very little downloads and other podcasters thousands when they launch on iTunes?

John says that there are tons of books written on the subject but why he gets over 10,000 downloads per day which has snowballed and grew is the reason for his business model. He is doing 7-day business podcasts. His first action is to email whoever went live on his podcast every morning and he says in an email “your interview on EOF went live. Here are your links. You shared an amazing interview and I would be honored if you share it with your tribe.”

Every single day, 7-days a week EOF is exposed to a new massive audience and a major portion never have heard a podcast and that builds an audience. He is also on ITunes top 10 and this brings in new organic listeners every day. There is a combination of people sharing his podcast with their listeners and also the organic audience that comes from iTunes and this is why he sees this continual increase.

For people who’re starting a podcast for the first time. How do they begin and what is the best way to begin?

Where podcasting is going into the future is that Stitcher radio has locked down deals with car companies. Prior to Stitcher Radio, companies like Sirius XM radio were already on board but now with Stitcher Radio, anyone can download a podcast and listen for the first time in their vehicle.. When cars start to include it, it will be a new game changer along with smartphones.

For someone who wants to start. Learn how to learnhowtopodcast.com by Cliff Ravenscraft is a great resource. For a little more investment you can buy johns podcast book podcast book.

Cliff also has a $2000 course that walks you through how to podcast. John also came out with a 6-figure podcast program that also breaks down everything hes done with EOF with great guests and amazing content on a daily basis. There is a lot of stuff out there and Google is your best friend.

To reach John Le Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire and find out everything he does, be sure to visit his site and also check out his podcast by clicking here.

Links discussed in the podcast:

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