013: The Power of Lifestyle Entrepreneurship with John Lee Dumas

Justin Donald: All right. Well, I'm excited to be here with John Lee Dumas. John, great to have you on the show.

 

John Lee Dumas: JD, JLD here. I am ready to light this stage on fire, brother.

 

Justin Donald: I love it. Well, you're kind of known for that, right? You're kind of known for doing great things, turning things into fire. Everyone knows that you have, well actually, I don't know if everyone knows this. Most people in the industry know that you're one of the original podcasters, right? And so, it'd be interesting to hear kind of the story, some of the beginning stages, maybe when you weren't the big name that you are today.

 

John Lee Dumas: So, my story just go way back real quick. Starts in Maine, small-town boy growing up in a small town, went to college on an army scholarship. So, I spent four years as a cadet in college, and then afterwards did eight years as an officer in the army. Got out as a captain. I did a little 13-month tour of duty in Iraq as a tank commander so I was in charge of four tanks and 16 men during that tour of duty deployments. Then I got out and I had what I call six years of struggle, brother. I tried law school. I dropped out. hated it. Corporate finance wasn't for me. Real estate, no, thank you. This, that, the other thing, nothing was working for me. And so, I started to educate myself, like all these great books behind you. I just started reading and reading and reading from the business grades, biographies, you name it. So, I listened to their audiobooks, started listening to podcasts, and I was loving these podcast episodes that were interviewing successful entrepreneurs. I'm like I'm learning so much during these interviews, I'm going to go find a show that drops every single day because I need to listen to one of these every day for inspiration for knowledge for all that jazz. Justin, that show did not exist. It did not exist. I couldn't believe it. It was like waking up and like all of a sudden Starbucks is gone. You're like, “Wait a second, that that doesn't exist, like really?” You’re like, "There's no Uber like what?” 

 

I couldn't believe it and then I had a quote by Gandhi that had read recently that was, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” and I said, "Why not be the change that I want to see in the world?” I said I'm going to stink as a host, as a podcaster, as a communicator. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not a techie person but I'm going to do it. I'm going to go all in. I'm going to do a daily show. I'm going to interview people. I'm going to surround myself with the right people. I'm going to build my network up on the average of the five people I spend the most time with. So, let's hang out with some pretty cool people like Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk, Pat Flynn, Amy Porterfield, Lewis Howes, some of my first few guests, and who all have since become great, dear friends of mine now and this is like, man, as you and I are talking now, 3,000 episodes, 100 million listens, multiple, seven figures, and as a finance guy, you'll appreciate this, of net profit with three virtual assistants. So, small team, high net profit, making things happen, living in Puerto Rico, brother, on the Caribbean, beautiful house, beautiful fiancé, beautiful goldendoodle who's right behind me right here, and just keeping all the money that I make with the tax benefits of lovely Puerto Rico.

 

Justin Donald: I love it. Well, I mean, there's so much we could unpack in this. I mean, part of the reason for this podcast is to really help people learn how to invest in a way that supports their lifestyle. You've been able to do that through entrepreneurship, through your business, through a medium that was a love for you that you were able to transform. Something that's really cool about you, I love that you publish the stats of revenue, and your net profit. Obviously, you can do the math and figure out the cost of the expenses but it's not much.

 

John Lee Dumas: You don't have to do the math, brother. You don't have to do the math. We do the math for you. We show you every single penny that we make every single month. We show you every single penny that we spend every single month. What we spend it on is listed, it is invoiced out, it is step-by-step, line-by-line, 89 months in a row now. We've had a net profit of over $100,000 and we bring on our lawyer to share a legal tip. We bring on our CPA to share our tax tip, make it a really valuable income report. And that's what I'm most proud of is the fact that this report can inspire people to emulate what's working for us and our business right now, they can avoid the mistakes that we're making in our business right now, and we can inspire other people to say, “Hey, there are great ways to generate real revenue by adding real value,” and that's what we do.

 

Justin Donald: And that's the answer, right? So, how do you generate this type of income? And I'll get into specific numbers in a second but, yeah, it's all about how much value are you adding because you will receive some sort of compensation in proportion to the value that you add. Obviously, you're doing wonderful things. I was looking over the financials. Your 2020 numbers. You had 2.3 million in gross income and 1.8 million in net profit. And then let's just take that one step further because you have since inception been on there. So, your time since starting back I guess it was about just a little bit less than a decade, right? You have a total of a little over 19 million gross revenue, and then 14 million a little over that net profit. Fantastic. So, why did you decide to be so transparent with your numbers? Because most people don't do that. They don't list the financials. They don't say, “Hey, here's what I brought in. Here are the expenses.” Why did you want to do that?

 

John Lee Dumas: Well, most people aren't keeping much of the money they make. So, they don't really have much of an income report to share if we're just being honest. For me, back in 2011, 2012, when I was starting to get into the entrepreneurship game, I found Pat Flynn and he was publishing his income reports and he was doing it for many months before that, and I was like, "Here's a good guy. A family guy. He's delivering real value. I'm getting value from his blog, from his podcast.” And he's showing me how he's making money so I felt like I could do it because he was doing it and he was showing that it could be done in a very value-first, ethically-driven way because I came from a very traditional background. I mean, I was an officer in the US Army. I mean, it's all about respect and truth and ethos, and I wanted to have a career that was that. I didn't want to jump into something that was like slimy, scammy, internet marketer, which is like what some people perceived as and kind of broke down those walls for me. And so, I said, "If I ever get to the point where I'm actually making some revenue, some decent revenue, I want to be that inspiration. I want to be that transparency. I want to be that beacon of light for other people to follow my footsteps on what's working, and again, what's not working.” We make plenty of mistakes and failures, and we lovingly report those on the income reports as well because we want people to avoid those and we want people to know that, yes, we are human too. Failure is part of the process. It is part of the game.

 

Justin Donald: Yeah. There's no doubt. Let me, first of all, thank you for your service. I think it's tremendous what you and many other people do to serve our country and give us the freedom that we have that a lot of us take for granted. My brother served three tours and was in for seven years. And so, I just have a great appreciation for the men and women that serve us. So, thank you there. It's also interesting because sometimes you see a tougher transition out of the Armed Forces and into civilian life or entrepreneurship and it seems like you really transitioned well, but you did it strategically.

 

John Lee Dumas: No. I did terribly. 

 

Justin Donald: Oh, you did terribly. Okay.

 

John Lee Dumas: Years of a terrible transition. I mean, I failed at everything. I PTSD. I dropped out of law school. I was not doing well at all for six years. That is not a short period of time. So, the reality is bad transition but I was able to pull it together. I was able to, again, look at the books behind JD’s head like I read the right books. I surrounded myself with the right people, if not like actually in person because I didn't know anybody with these books, with these YouTube shows I was able to watch, with these podcasts that I could listen to. And finally, at 32 years old, and finally six years after getting out of the army, I had an idea to start something that I had no idea if it's going to work or not. Luckily, Entrepreneurs on Fire turned into a grand slam but I had so many failures before then and I've had so many failures since then but I focus on my winners. That's what I do.

 

Justin Donald: That's awesome. For those of you that don't know, John Lee Dumas is known throughout the world for his podcast. It's award-winning and you've heard the downloads, 100 million downloads. That's so incredible. I think about what you've done, I think about how strategic it was because let's say this business failed. It obviously didn't. You are spending time hanging out with some of the most brilliant people on planet Earth. You are upgrading your peer group, not to say that you're replacing people but you're being intentional about where you're spending time. Sometimes you have to do that, right? But, man, what a great worst-case scenario. You learn from a bunch of titans, and then best-case scenario, it works out the way that it worked out. That's incredible. 

 

John Lee Dumas: Listen, I end every one of my episodes by saying, "Hey, fire nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with and you've been hanging out with JD and JLD today, so keep up the heat. What am I saying by that? You just hung out with two flipping cool people who are both very successful. Here's two multimillionaires you're hanging out with right now, and guess what? It's time for you to keep up the heat now. Go find two, three, four other people who you want to become the average of like this is your opportunity. This is your life. You're already off in the right foot. Now, keep it going because I get that maybe your next-door neighbor is not the most successful person in the world. Maybe they are. If they are, go hang out with them. If they're not, don't cry for me, Argentina. Go find people online in Clubhouse right now. It’s a fantastic place to go. Listen to be a fly on the wall where brilliant people are having amazing conversations. YouTube, unbelievable. I sit in my infrared sauna every single day, Justin, and I have an amazing interview that's being played about health, about wellness, about finance, about relationships, about entrepreneurship, about business. You name it. I'm consuming this content and that's happening every single day and never ends for me.

 

Justin Donald: I love it. You're so intentional about it. I really find that people that put intention, they're purposeful, they make decisions ahead of time. It's a proactive type of thing, not a reactive type of life, and it really steers the ship. Otherwise, you just go on autopilot. You just respond. You just put out fires instead of actually moving in the direction that you aspire to go and I love that. When I think about you publicly displaying your financials, that could be a lot of trouble on an IRS audit or something like that. You're basically saying, “Hey, take a look at everything. Make sure that I'm doing this the right way,” but you have even just taken the game of taxes to another level. For many people that don't know the perks and benefits, walk us through why Puerto Rico, and what that has meant to you from a lifestyle standpoint? Because you could live anywhere. And then from a tax standpoint.

 

John Lee Dumas: Listen, I love California. I live in San Diego for five years. I think it's a beautiful city. I love it. 2014 I wrote a check for seven figures to the government. 2015 I did the exact same thing. I went to my accountant and I said, “Find me a legal way to get out of doing just that for the third year in a row.” Unfortunately, The Lifestyle Investor wasn't out at that time. He didn't have any good answers for me. He said, "Move to Nevada. Move to Texas. Move to Florida.” I’m like, “I don't want to move to those crappy states. I'm sorry if you're from the States. I don't want to move there to save 7% or 10%.” Everybody's like, “I'm moving and I'm saving state taxes.” It's like you're saving state taxes. You're paying federal taxes. That's the big boy. That's the 37%, 39% like that's the one you want to get out of if you can, legally. And I found out about this little thing called Act 60. And I was like, what's Act 60? Well, Puerto Rico, beautiful islands in the Caribbean, three and a half million people, 111 miles wide, 40 miles by width. Big islands, beautiful islands. Poor. It's been a brain drain for a long time here. All the best people of Puerto Rico, they go to Miami, go to New York City. That's what the smartest people go because that's where the jobs are? Puerto Rico is like, “What can we do?” “Oh, well, we can attract successful businessmen and women entrepreneurs to our islands. And guess what? We're an American territory so no passport needed. Just come on over.”

 

And the day you land and switch your business over which is a pretty simple process to a Puerto Rico EIN, you don't pay any federal tax, you don't pay any state tax, you pay 4% corporate tax. And that's just half of Act 60. So, for now, four-and-a-half years I've lived here and I've only been paying 4.5% tax on my multiple millions of dollars that I'm making every year. So, you can do the math in your head. Instead of paying 51%, I'm paying 4%. I bought a $2 million beautiful home on the Caribbean here. 17 months I'd saved more in taxes than I paid for this house. Just think about that for a second. Amazing stuff. Think about these philanthropic things. I've written multiple six-figure checks to my favorite charities that otherwise would have gone to Uncle Sam, tenfold. It's unbelievable what you can do when you actually start to keep the money you make. And the other half that Act 60 that I alluded to, 0% capital gains. You own some Bitcoin? Sell it. No capital gains. You own stocks and bonds? Sell it, no capital gains. You own real estate, you sell it. No capital gains. You own a business and you sell it? No capital gains, 0%. That's why all the Bitcoin billionaires moved to Puerto Rico, and they're all taking advantage of it. I mean, if you're an American citizen and you own Bitcoin over $100,000, really over $500,000, and you're not living in Puerto Rico right now, you are certifiably insane because it makes 0.00% chance, unless you have extenuating circumstances that are just forcing you to stay in the state. 

 

And there are people that are in that situation. My heart goes out to you. I'm sorry. You can't come to my Caribbean paradise, and it really is a Caribbean paradise. As you can tell, I'm passionate about it and I'm a pretty good sales guy so I'm responsible for thousands and thousands of people moving to the islands and keeping the money they make. And you know what, you only get to spend six months in a day here. Kate and I do a three-month trip around the world every single year. We spend a month in San Diego, a month in Maine, and then six, seven, eight months in Puerto Rico. Life is tough.

 

Justin Donald: So, that right there is lifestyle and I love that. You definitely put on a sales course right there for Puerto Rico. I mean, anyone listening is like, "Gosh, I need to live there,” or at least consider it. There are so many advantages. It's unbelievable. So, I have a lot of friends that have moved there. I actually just yesterday, I ended up investing in a property there and I've got my eyes and some other properties. And so, I'm a big fan even just from a real estate standpoint, which is pretty cool. What did you say?

 

John Lee Dumas: I said where specifically in Puerto Rico did you invest?

 

Justin Donald: Yeah. Right next to the Regis.

 

John Lee Dumas: Oh, it’s a beautiful property, in St. Regis.

 

Justin Donald: Yeah. So, very excited about it. I mean, I love Puerto Rico. I have had a lot of fun and I've got friends that have figured out how to just be there six months out of the year, even if it's not in one extended stay just over time. So, this is one thing where you don't want to play the game and try to elude the authorities. You got to do it legit.

 

John Lee Dumas: Do it right. It's a lot of money. Save it. Dot the Is cross the Ts. Life is good.

 

Justin Donald: But it's really compelling when you lay it out to say, "Hey, I've got this killer home. It's a $2 million home and I saved enough in taxes here just over the last few years that I've been here to pay for the home.” That is powerful.

 

John Lee Dumas: $2 million home in 17 months, free and clear.

 

Justin Donald: So, I've got a handful of people in my investors club, my mastermind, that are in the process of converting over, converting their business over, and moving. And I've got a private client that, well, technically two private clients that are considering it, one that is a lot closer than the other. So, yeah, it's just its own place and it is attracting a lot of high-profile people, a lot of successful people. So, from the standpoint of peer group, network, it's tremendous. 

 

John Lee Dumas: Where do you live? 

 

Justin Donald: So, I'm in Austin.

 

John Lee Dumas: Oh, all the people that moved to Austin, I'm just like, “What are you guys doing?” I'm like, "You're going to Austin, Texas?” Because Texas is business-friendly. I get it. But, man, just come to a Caribbean paradise. I mean, enough with these dust bowls.

 

Justin Donald: Yeah. So, I love Austin. I think Austin is just a special, special place. 

 

John Lee Dumas: You have to pretend like you love it. Everybody has to pretend like they love it. I get it. We can move on. It's good.

 

Justin Donald: It's amazing. It's great. By the way, I love Puerto Rico, too. There are a lot of places I love. There are very few places I think I would consider living but I've talked to my wife about it. My wife's really funny though. She's like, "Didn't you work hard to be able to make what it is that you make, to be able to live the life that you want to live? So, what's the point of going somewhere else if you already are living the life that you want to live and you already make what you want to make?” And I said, "Oh, that's a pretty compelling argument.”

 

John Lee Dumas: Married a smart one there. I think you should hang on to her. 

 

Justin Donald: So, yeah, we have fun conversations about that but I think it's tremendous. It's just so great.

 

John Lee Dumas: It's just like write on a whiteboard the number that you could donate to charity every year if you move to the islands. That might help her out a little bit. 

 

Justin Donald: That could get her. That could be a good angle and a good strategy. And you know, quite frankly, six months there sounds wonderful to me.

 

John Lee Dumas: Six months here, six months in Austin, I mean, I'm sure there's six crappy months in Austin you can cut out of your life and spend in Puerto Rico.

 

Justin Donald: Well, like you we love to travel and, I mean, it's been kind of weird with the borders closed down but we like to spend a couple of months in Europe or Canada or just overseas. We love getting extended time, experiencing the world, and then periodic long trips at other points in time too. 

 

John Lee Dumas: Do you have any kids yet?

 

Justin Donald: Pardon?

 

John Lee Dumas: Any kids?

 

Justin Donald: Yeah. So, I have a daughter that's eight. Just turned eight.

 

John Lee Dumas: Oh, that's a good age. My niece is nine. It's a really cool age.

 

Justin Donald: So fun and I just love like exposing her to this world, this big, wide-open world that I didn't know about until I was much older. I didn't really do much traveling until I was in college and most of the college stops were just more party spots. So, post-college is really when I started traveling and I just think it's so cool if you can introduce this culture and these ideas to kids at a young age and have them see just a different world. I think that's so neat. I actually like that from a cultural standpoint of Puerto Rico as well. Very cool. So, I'm curious, JLD, what is most exciting in your world right now? You've got some big news. You've got some new stuff happening and I know that, I mean, we've got a bunch of things in common here because, well, I'll let you get into the specifics but you got a big project that you've been pouring your heart into for over a year. Give us the goods. 

 

John Lee Dumas: Listen, 2020 was a tough year for a lot of people. I decided to use 2020 for good and I decided to say, “Hey, I'm going to sit down every single morning in 2020,” and for two hours, the first two hours of my day, the best two hours of my day, I am going to write. I'm going to write and write and write, and I am going to complete by the end of the year my first traditionally published book. And I stuck to it, JD. Didn't miss a day. Wrote 71,000 words. Every word I wrote myself. This is me, zero ghostwriters. I wrote every single word. And it's a culmination of those 3,000 interviews that we've mentioned that I've done over the past eight-and-a-half years of… 

 

Justin Donald: Which is tremendous on its own. There are so few people that have done 3,000 interviews. That's incredible. 

 

John Lee Dumas: I agree. I mean, it's been a long time of interviewing a lot of Austin people and I was able to take those amazing conversations and distill it down into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment. And I know you're all about financial freedom and you'll probably agree with the fact that it's really hard to enjoy the financial side of things if you're not also fulfilled. And it's also really hard to be fulfilled if you don't have financial freedom because you're having to probably drive for somebody else and that's not very fulfilling. So, this is a 17-step roadmap, step 1 to step 17, chronological to financial freedom and fulfillment. It is my life's work. I may never write another book because this is it for me right now. This is everything that I've done becoming a multi-million dollar a year business owner and host of Entrepreneurs on Fire, interviewing 3,000 other successful entrepreneurs about their journeys and how they made it. I really just saw that so many people are being lied to like they're being told that success is elusive. It's complicated. It's scary. It's like all these different things. And by the way, success and attaining it, it's not easy but there is a very common path that we all have taken. And by we all, that's myself, that's you, JD, and that's the 3,000 guests that I've interviewed on my show. We've all taken a very common path to get to our version of uncommon success. We've all done these very similar things along the way, in a very similar order. And this is the roadmap I had to get out there to the world. 

 

So, when I first sat down in early 2020, I wrote out these steps and they were just two steps, and I was like, "Now it's time to expound on each one of these steps,” and then I also looked at these 17 steps and I said, "Of the 3,000 people I've interviewed, who best exemplifies each step?” And I reached out to them and I asked them to contribute their experience in that step, specifically. So, a great example of step one in this roadmap is identifying your big idea. Most people never identify their big idea in their life, and then they die. That happens. Not anymore, not with this book. You will identify your big idea. I show you. I tell you what it means to identify your big idea, how to do it. I have the templates, the exercises, the strategy, like you will have your zone of fire. You will have your big idea, period, by the end of chapter one. Then in the second part of chapter one, I tell you how I applied my big idea, Entrepreneurs on Fire, so you can see an actual real-world perspective, and then I brought in an amazing entrepreneur. His name is Hal Elrod, the author of The Miracle Morning and he talks about how he used his big idea to create greatness. So, you can follow his advice as well. And I did that for all 17 chapters. It’s such a meaty book. It’s 273 pages. It is really a thorough definitive guide to financial freedom and fulfillment. 

 

Hey, brother, you're an author. You know pre-orders are everything. We've got to push those pre-orders because then when the book goes live, boom, it's out to the world. I mean, I've got your book on my Kindle right now. I told you on the email, and it's true, I'm at 34%. I wish I was further along but the reality is I'm on a book launch right now so I'm having a hard time getting a lot of free reading time, but I will be finishing that book for sure. But right now, what I'm doing is I'm getting out there and I'm screaming from the rooftops I'm saying, "This is the time right now today to pre-order my book and to just make sure that you don't wait until the day of the book goes live because you don't want to procrastinate and order the book now and pre-order it because we have five amazing bonuses that come with every single pre-order.” Just one of those bonuses, I won't get into all five today but just one of them, I'm shipping, JD, all three of my journals, the Freedom, Mastery, and Podcast. My physical journals, I'm shipping them to your door unless if you live in Austin, I won't ship to Austin, Texas. Anywhere else. I am shipping all three of these journals to your door for free. So, a $17 Kindle or a $28 hardcover order, you're getting $150 worth of real value journal shipped to your door. These journals are all available for $45 on Amazon right now. You can go buy them or you can get them for free just by pre-ordering the book. 

 

UncommonSuccessBook.com, the other four bonuses are listed out there. This book has been personally endorsed by the way, Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Neil Patel, Erica Mandy, Dorie Clark. Luminaries read this book. They've endorsed this book. I'm very proud of that. And just excited to get it out to the world, my man.

 

Justin Donald: You've got a lineup endorsing for you. That is fantastic. And it's actually really fun hearing you share your story because 2020 was exactly like that for me too and morning time is my sweet spot. I mean, I can get up and I can get to work. My brain’s fresh. It was one of those years where, like you, I don't know that I ever considered myself an author and who knows what the future holds but it was really fun to have a project to pour into. And once you get into it, it really gets fun and interesting and you learn that you can be more creative than maybe you originally thought or at least that was my experience.

 

John Lee Dumas: Mine too. I never thought I was going to be an author like I was an audio guy. As a podcaster, I've spoken and I’ve keynoted to some of the biggest stages around the world for the past eight years now and I love doing all those things but I'm like not really an author. I don’t sit down and like actually write stuff and, man, once you start doing it, it just kind of like you said, it becomes part of you and the creative juices start flowing and boom. Next thing you know, you're like, “Man, this isn't half bad.” Now again, not saying I’m going to write another book. I mean, this was my book. This is my Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald but, I hear you, I'm waiting on that.

 

Justin Donald: That's so cool. And by the way, I love that you're bringing in people with each of your chapters. So, like Hal, you know, Hal’s one of my closest friends. He and I hang out very regularly. His podcast is actually released right now like today and we've got some UFC plans here in two days.

 

John Lee Dumas: Good old Hal. 

 

Justin Donald: He is just a ball of joy, energy, and inspiration, and it's great that you're pulling people in like that to hear what you're doing.

 

John Lee Dumas: You know, one of the guys who originally inspired me, Pat Flynn. He's the feature. I've got Amy Porterfield, Jeff Walker, talking about launches, Russell Brunson, Ramit Sethi. I mean, I went crème de la crème. I called in all my favors, all my reciprocity, and boom, it is now. I am going all in and, man, I'm excited about this.

 

Justin Donald: Well, I feel like this is such a great time to give our book launch director some killer props because we share the same book launch director, Amber Vilhauer with NGNG Enterprises. 

 

John Lee Dumas: No guts, no glory.

 

Justin Donald: She is a beast. She is like the hardest worker out there. She puts her clients first. I am more than impressed with her, with her work ethic, with her team, with their expertise like she leaves no detail behind. I'm just thrilled. I'm curious. I mean, I know you've had the same experience but I'd love to hear your thoughts too.

 

John Lee Dumas: Yeah. Amber and I go way back. We used to hang out in San Diego back in the day and she actually last year, actually, it was late 2019. So, we snuck it in before things got crazy. She hosted an amazing mastermind at my home here in Puerto Rico. So, you know we brought down Mike Michalowicz, Sally Hogshead, Michael Port, just epic, epic individuals, and we had a three-day in-person mastermind here at my place. And it was just such a cool experience. You must know Jon Berghoff as well.

 

Justin Donald: Very well. 

 

John Lee Dumas: He ran the mastermind for all three days here and just getting to hang out with Jon is obviously like he's so similar to Hal’s as far as their energy and their vibe. It was so awesome. It was just such a great, fantastic experience. I mean, I loved every minute of it and Amber she's just great at what she does, for obvious reasons, and when it came time for me to get a book launch manager and go all in, gave Amber a call and locked it down.

 

Justin Donald: I love it. And you know what, Jon Berghoff, what a great facilitator, the world's greatest facilitator. This guy is like facilitating for the biggest names in the world for their corporate teams and their executives. It's pretty awesome and it's nice that you can have him on a personal basis in your home. 

 

John Lee Dumas: Yeah. He's next level.

 

Justin Donald: He is. That is so cool. So, what's the purpose of the book in like the long-term? Why write a book? You weren't planning on writing a book. You want to have impact. It's clear. But why now?

 

John Lee Dumas: So, my podcast gets 1.4 million listens month-over-month and growing. And it's an audience that I lovingly refer to as Fire Nation. They're amazing. One thing they have in common is that they're really looking to grow an online business, to start an online business, to get going in this world that we live in. And so, I get the same questions over and over again. And like I can't sit down and write out an answer to every one of these questions. But now, I have the definitive answer to all of their questions. I can hand them a $17 book and say, "If you can't read this book and apply the principles, the 17-step roadmap, and have some uncommon success in your life in the next six months, then that tells you something too which is a good thing. It tells you that this is just not for you, which is fine. It's better to know now than later.” And that's something a lot of people need to know like this is a book that if entrepreneurship is meant for you, if starting and launching and growing something of your own is for you, this book will get you there, 100%. Follow the 17 steps. It's going to take you there step-by-step-by-step. Done. End of story. Period. You will be experiencing your own uncommon success. For the small percentage of people, and there will be people out there who just, "John, it’s not working for me,” it's not going to happen for you. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm an army officer. I can be blunt at times. I'm just saying it's just not going to work for you. And that's not a bad thing. JD, the 37th employee at Facebook, much richer than you and I will ever be.

 

Justin Donald: That’s true. 

 

John Lee Dumas: Flipping, crushing it. And they found their thing. And so, if this isn't your thing, go find your thing. Go be the 37th employee at the next Facebook, whatever, or the number two at an amazing company or whatever it looks like. And that's okay, too. But the best part about it is this book will show you if you can't hack it after this, man, hang it up and it's fine. Go find something else because there's something else waiting for you for sure.

 

Justin Donald: That's great. And it's just good to have like an actual finite decision like this is binary. It's yes or it's no, and all right, let's move on to the next thing. It's good to not be in limbo and to be able to make a decision and move forward. One of the things that I love asking all of my guests, and it's so funny because it ties in perfectly with you, the lifestyle you have, the book that you wrote but I love asking people what wealth and freedom mean to them. So, to you, what are wealth and freedom?  

 

John Lee Dumas: They're honestly one and the same. They really are to me because freedom means waking up in the morning, and doing what I want, where I want, with whom I want. And when I can do those things, that's because I'm financially free. It's because I have lifestyle freedom. It's because I have that location independence. I have those things. And that to me, is wealth and freedom. And so, those are things that I've strived for and things, luckily, that long ago I achieved, and I'm living that life now. And now, what lights me up inside is not to go sit by my beautiful pool or go on to my beautiful beach and sip Mai Tais. It's not how I operate. Like, do I love going for long walks with my dog and my fiancé? Yes. Do I enjoy my pool and my terrace and my beach? Yes, all of those things. But there's a limit to how much I'm going to enjoy that stuff because I want to get on a microphone, I want to talk to you. You're an inspiring guy. You're doing great things. I love having conversations like this. I want to talk to Hal Elrod who I just talked to 35 minutes ago. I had interviewed him for my show. I want to talk to Jon Berghoff at my house. Jon Berghoff's not coming to my house if I'm just retired sitting on the beach. He's got no use for me, and I've got no use for him. I don't want to live in that world. I want to live in that world where I'm surrounding myself and I'm having these conversations. And by the way, I'm doing the ripple effect, which is this conversation, somebody's listening. 

 

And someone's saying, "And that JLD, I'm just not vibing with him." Cool. Not everybody's going to vibe with me. That is totally cool. Go find your vibe. Obviously, if you're listening you probably vibe with JD. Awesome. Keep consuming his content. There's going to be people listening right now, they’re like, “You know what, I kind of had to hear what John was saying and I'm going to go read that book and I'm going to listen to his podcast." They're going to be inspired to do something that they might otherwise not have done. And that person, JD, that does something they might not otherwise have done, is now going to go and inspire a whole other set of people who might not otherwise have been inspired without that ripple effect, without that second, third, fourth, fifth-degree of separation. That's the ripple effect. That's what wakes me up beside and I know that people like myself, Hal Elrod, Jon Berghoff, you, like we're making this world a better place, one inspiration at a time. 

 

Justin Donald: JLD, I love your passion. Your enthusiasm is contagious. And one thing that I think about when you say, “Hey I'm not just going to sit on the beach and sip Mai Tais.” It's fun to do that for a period of time. What's even more fun is to know that you could do that indefinitely, but not do it but it's having that time where you then can say, “Okay. Well, I don't have to work. So, what do I get to work on? What can I create? Who can I spend time with?” And that's the fun of it. That's the purpose of financial independence and financial freedom. It's to buy your time back so you can spend it as you want, pour into the passions that reside in the depths of your soul, and do whatever it is that you want to do. Accomplish a new thing, write a book, even though you've never written a book, and move to a place that you've never been, and try all kinds of new things. And I just love what you're doing and the impact that you are making. I have an interesting question because you have a great peer group, you have great advisors, you have great mentors, I mean, you really have done a great job of curating just an epic group of people to surround yourself with. So, my question is, with all these great people around you, what have you listened to recently or read recently that has been really inspiring?

 

John Lee Dumas: I love reading fiction books because, to me, it's kind of one of those like outside-of-the-box things. It’s like will I listen to business podcasts all day long? Will I read business books? Of course. I'm reading Lifestyle Entrepreneur right now. It's one of the books I'm reading, like will I read books like that? Yes. But at the same time, I love reading like fiction books that are just for fun, entertainment. It kind of gives my brain a chance to unwind, turn off, and like not be so focused, and then sometimes click, something happens during that time, and I have an idea, but I never would have had always being in business, while always doing that thing. And so, man, there's a book. There's actually two of them now because the second one came out but the first one was called Ready Player One. 

 

Justin Donald: Oh, yeah. 

 

John Lee Dumas: If you were born anytime like in 1980 or later and earlier too, actually. I guess, let me rephrase that. If you were born in anytime like before 1990, this book is classic for you and then there's a book that just came out. I don't know if you've seen this yet, JD, but I obviously signed up to this guy's email list so I knew it. Ready Player Two, it is out. It is good. It's not as good as Ready Player One but it's really good. And those books, man, I was just in a blissful place reading that book by my pool looking at the Caribbean like life was good. 

 

Justin Donald: It's great when you can find a book that you don't put down that you are so eager to read that like this trumps most things, and I love it. And you said something about how really your brain works a different way. You have different ideas because you're not obsessing in the thing. You're kind of outside your business, outside your ideas, rather than inside of them. And so, there's something called the different brainwaves and one of them being theta where your brain kind of disconnects and that's where a lot of the creative thoughts tend to happen. And so, like if you've ever had that experience in the shower where you're like, “Oh I have these killer ideas in the shower frequently.”

 

John Lee Dumas: I bought in Amazon a little dry erase board to put in the shower and was like waterproof because I was tired of coming up with an idea then having to like repeat it to myself a million times. I'm like, “I want to enjoy my showers. My shower is like my favorite part of the day.” So, I just got a little dry erase board in there and writing my ideas.

 

Justin Donald: I love it. That's amazing. That's a nugget in itself because I do the thing. I'm like, "Okay, repeat it, repeat it. This is good,” and then you get out of theta, right?

 

John Lee Dumas: Another great little hack is I do have an Alexa in my bathroom so I will just be like, “Alexa, take this note,” and then I'll say it and then like it'll go to my notes so that's pretty cool too. 

 

[CLOSING]

 

Justin Donald: I love it. Well, reading does the same to me. I mean, I get into another brain wavelength and I get all the creative juices going. My ideas tend to come when I can get outside like get the brain to stop thinking about whatever it is and just let it roam, let it imagine, let it get creative. That's where the magic is. Well, JLD, I have had so much fun having you on the show. I know you've got a tight schedule and I appreciate you making the time especially during a busy book launch. I literally just got done so I empathize so much with you, where you are, the hoops that you need to jump through to make sure that you're doing everything that you can for the success of the book. I just want to, again, give you a chance to share where our listeners can find out about you and where they can get the book.

 

John Lee Dumas: UncommonSuccessBook.com. There's a great video there, tells you more about the book. Obviously, below on that website, there's some great description of the books. All five of the bonuses are detailed out there. Again, these bonuses, they disappear the day the book goes live on March 23. So, do not wait because you'll get zero bonuses if you wait. You'll get five bonuses if you act now and we're actually pulling bonuses before launch day. So, definitely the sooner the better for everybody listening, UncommonSuccessBook.com. One of those bonuses, I am shipping all three of my journals to your door, to your door. And I was kidding. I will ship to Austin but just, no. I’m kidding. 

 

Justin Donald: I was hoping. I was banking on it.

 

John Lee Dumas: I was banking on it, baby. But I'm super passionate about this book. I mean, I put my heart, my soul, everything, my blood, sweat, my tears of the past eight-and-a-half years, 3,000 episodes. Everything that I've learned is in this book and if you don't think that's worth $17, I hate you. I'm just kidding. I still love you.

 

Justin Donald: Well, I'm inspired to read your book because it's on topics that are meaningful to me and it's a system where I have also built my wealth. I recognize that it's methodical, and I like that. But also, if you're reading my book, I have to read your book. So, no matter what, it's the reciprocal type of commandment there. But, hey, I am so thrilled to have you on the show and to really learn more about you and what you've been spending time on this past year. You are an incredible guy with a brilliant vision and I'm just so excited that you were able to share it with the world. And to all of our listeners, I just want to encourage you to take a step, move in the direction of financial freedom, move one step closer, take one form of action to live a life by design, not by default so that your wildest dreams can come true. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you on the next episode.

 

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