Founder Interviews: John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire

JLD is the founder of the award winning podcast Entrepreneur On Fire, which has done over $13 million in revenue since launching in 2012.

Davis Baer: What’s your background, and what are you working on?

​John Lee Dumas: I have my entire story on my About page :) https://www.eofire.com/about

The short version is that I graduated college and was commissioned as an officer in the US Army. I spent 18 months in Iraq during my 4 years active, then spent 4 years in the reserves. After that I tried Corporate Finance, tried Law School — but wasn’t happy. I knew there had to be more out there.

I started listening to podcasts and fell in love with the free, actionable, inspiring content they provided — especially the ones that interviewed entrepreneurs who had created their own lifestyle freedom through doing something they love.

Today I’m working on building and launching a funnel that will help Fire Nation discover their BIG Idea (3 Hours to Your BIG Idea is a free course), and then turn that idea into Real Revenue. YourBigIdea.io :)

What motivated you to start EOF?

I fell in love with listening to interview podcasts with entrepreneurs… I’d tune in every day when I was driving in the car to and from appointments for my commercial real estate job. But one day I ran out of podcasts to listen to because those who were producing these shows only did it 1 time per week — or 1 time every other week. So I decided to be the change and create a daily podcast interviewing today’s most inspiring entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurs On Fire

What went into building the initial product?

​If initial product = the podcast, then a lot of time and dedication is what went into it!

I had no idea how to produce a podcast. I’d never interviewed people before, recorded myself speaking, or published anything online. It was all brand new to me.

I invested in a mastermind, I hired a mentor, and I started consuming all the podcasting content I could. I also started attending live workshops and in-person events to meet those who were doing what I wanted to do and who were already where I wanted to be.

What’s your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?

​Entrepreneurs On Fire the podcast is the foundation of our business. From that we’ve created several free courses, communities, and products to serve the needs of our audience, Fire Nation, based on the struggles and questions they’ve come to us with.

Membership/community: We have an online community and membership site to teach others how to create, grow and monetize their own podcast, Podcasters’ Paradise. https://podcastersparadise.com

Products: We have 2 (soon-to-be 3) physical Journals: The Freedom Journal (Accomplish your #1 Goal in 100 Days) http://www.thefreedomjournal.com, The Mastery Journal (Master Productivity, Discipline, and Focus in 100 Days) http://themasteryjournal.com, and The Podcast Journal (Idea to Launch in 50 Days) https://thepodcastjournal.com.

Affiliates: We have several affiliate relationships for products, services, and platforms we use and love. We recommend these to our audience and receive referral commissions in return.

Sponsorships: We have sponsors on the podcast

You can check out details of all of our revenue streams in our monthly income reports > https://www.eofire.com/income

​How did you promote EOF when you were first starting out?

​Mainly through the guests I had on the show. Every day a new interview with a successful entrepreneur would go live, and every day I would email that successful entrepreneur and ask if they’d share their interview with their audience. That was incredible exposure for the podcast and a great way to help me build momentum.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced and obstacles you’ve overcome?

What to say YES to is my current biggest obstacle. I overcome it by realizing everything I say YES to means I am saying no ro EVERYTHING else I could be doing insead…

How big is the EOF team? And I remember seeing you were HQ’d in Puerto Rico — is that still the case?

We have 7 people, internationally located, and yes, I am in PR.

If you weren’t building EOF, what would you be doing?

Something related to health and wellness.

What’s one thing that most people don’t know about you?

I won a car on the price is right!

Follow John Lee Dumas on Twitter and check out Entrepreneur On Fire

Founder Interviews: John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.