Building an Audio Army: How to Grow 126 Million Listeners & 8 Figures in Revenue w/ John Lee Dumas

All right. Brian Lubin and J L D what is up? My friend,

you know, Puerto Rico's sun is shining. The birds are singing. Life is good.

The birds are singing. Life is good. How long have you been down there again? Six years. Six years before we get into the topic of today's show, tell the people preach to the people, John about the tax benefits of Puerto Rico.

So I was living in Southern California. Love it, beautiful part of the world, but I was giving the government 51% of every dollar that I was earning. And the day I moved to Puerto Rico, six years ago, that number 51 went to four and I'll never leave

four as in not four D as in cuatro, four cuatro. okay. And then how is that? How is that taxes? A flat rate percentage,

correct. Flat rate, 4%, 0% tax on capital gains. So real estate stocks, crypto zero. Oh

man. So I will give the people a bit of an update about where you started from or where you are today, because you are one of the OGs that convinced me to even start this podcast. And, but I do wanna let you speak a little bit about the adventures that you've been able to go on in the travels that you've been able to do while you're doing your business. So speak a little bit about how you were able to go around to Europe and travel abroad as you've run this podcast business.

So I call it batching like a baller. So a lot of people say, John, you do a seven day, week show, 365 days a year. You must be working all day every day. And I'm like, actually, On a normal schedule. I work one day per week, every Thursday, I do seven interviews. You are one of those seven recently that I did back to back and, uh, they're a blast. I'm talking to seven grade people over the course of a day. It's a lot of fun when I'm preparing for big trips. And by the way, I've taken multiple 60, 75 and even one 90 day European trip. 90 days. And guess what? Every day I was gone, a podcast episode went live on entrepreneurs on fire because I just batched my face off. I recorded like 120 episodes and the months leading up to departing, scheduled them to be released. And then I went on my Merry way and I had the episodes released as I went. Scheduled to go. I'd wake up in Lisbon Portugal one day and the episode was already live rocking and rolling, and life was good.

Talk to me about how you decided to go to a seven day a week podcast when that was not standard in the industry. And to this day, you've been doing this for a decade to this day. It's still not active. It's just about once a week is.

Yes. And not only was it not standard, it was unheard of it had not been done yet, which is exactly why I wanted to do it, cuz it had not been done. So the year is 2012 and I said, Hey, I wanna start a business podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. How can I be different? How can I stand out? I wasn't gonna stand out because I was better than anybody cuz I wasn't, I was gonna stand out on frequency. So I found that everybody was doing a show one, one day a week. I. What if I did seven times the amount of episodes, what if I did a daily podcast interviewing the world's most successful entrepreneurs? What if I did that? The guess what? It might not work, but guess what? It might work and. As I am doing that thing, I'm getting, I'm gonna have the opportunity to talk to a lot of really cool people. So worst case scenario after a hundred episodes or 200 episodes, it fails, but I've still had. A hundred, 200, 300 amazing conversations with, with really cool people and hopefully build some good relationships while spoiler alert. That was 10 years ago. That was 3,700 episodes ago. That was 826 million listens ago. And I'm so kicking brother. . What was the

point where you were most excited about in your podcast growth? Because in my journey, I've gone from the zero to 1000 downloads a month and the 10,000 downloads a month and the thousand in the episode. And now I'm at 25,000 a month and I'm enjoying the ride as I go on. I'm curious about which part of that journey. Fired you up the most. If you can remember a specific point, I

can remember the month that I hit my first 100,000 listens in one month. Mm. Tell me about it. And , to me, I was like, that is a big number. That's a lot of people, huge accomplishment. And I remember that being like a really good moment. Cause I knew that a million was quite a ways off to go. A hundred thousand to a million is a big gap. So I knew that like my next milestone was, was years away, but that kind of made that milestone of a hundred thousand even more special.

What were the biggest, what were the biggest levers that you pulled to go from 10,000 to a hundred thousand? And then also same question for a hundred thousand to a million because that's my grand mission is to get the million downloads.

there's really two main levers. And the first lever was the consistency lever. I just never stopped, brother. I never stopped. And believe me, you will get to those numbers. If you remain consistent, if you don't stop, the only reason why other people don't hit these numbers is because they stop. They pod fade into the distance and they're gone and, you know, and that happens. That's just the reality. Guess what? I've launched podcasts that I was open to continue doing that just didn't work out for any number of reasons. And I've pod faded on those shows. So I know what pod fadings all about. I have never pod faded entrepreneurs on fire because this is something that I just love doing and have obviously found success with the second lever. And this is. a pretty big lever. I mean, listen, consistency is a big lever. Mm-hmm , but something that people don't realize in the podcasting space, and of course they realize it on some level, but they don't realize it as far as thinking about it is that podcasts listeners listen to podcasts, podcast listeners, listen to podcasts value. So guess what, Brian, every single person that's listening to this podcast right now, whether it's 10 people, a hundred people, a thousand people, 25,000 people. However many people are listening to this podcast. They all have one thing in common. , they are listening to a podcast. That means they have the podcast app on their phone. That means they have carved time outta their day to listen to a podcast. They found your podcast. They subscribe, they fall, they press the play button. Guess what? They listen to podcast. And guess what? I have a podcast and you, my lovely listeners need to keep listening to Brian. He's awesome. He's rocking the mic and listen to his episode on entrepreneurs, on fire. But I also know. That the average podcast listener listens to seven podcasts. And I want you to keep listening to Brian's, but I want you to also put me in your rotation of seven. And so that has been a huge growth driver for me, Brian, because every month I am on a minimum of 10 other people's podcasts, I am down with O P other people's podcasts, because I know, I know that. At least a certain percentage of listeners are going to at least check out entrepreneurs on fire, at least see what my show's all about. And hopefully if my show is good enough in their minds, they'll subscribe. They'll follow they'll. Listen. They'll tell their friends. And so I might get one evangelist from this episode that we're doing right. that becomes one of my biggest fans and tells everybody about the show that they know, and that alone is worth its weight in goals. Hmm. So that's really cool. That's really exciting. Those are two huge levers consistency and other people's podcasts. So whatever it is you're doing in this world, how can you get on other people's platforms that make sense for you? Is that Instagram is that LinkedIn is that TikTok, whatever it might. other people's platforms leverage their audience. Now, of course, you've gotta draw value bombs. You've gotta be a person of value. Otherwise they'll never check you out. And by the way, you also have to have a great product on the back end, that pod, that product. For me being my podcast entrepreneurs on a fire, cause I can go on a million shows a month. And if my podcast sucked here, people might go and listen one time, but then they're gone. Yeah. So. Quality has to be, that would be the third lever I'll mention now is the show has to be quality, consistency, other people's platforms. Quality.

Perfect. So that makes me feel good because that's literally the playbook that I just went on a live zoom call with a couple hundred people asking about podcasting March. And that's the advice that I just gave them. I said, Hey look like I have a CRM of podcasting. Yours was included my friend and I proactively reached out. Right. I reached out to you and your team, you did, and then you guys were like, Hey, okay, here's a package story. That makes sense for our listeners. And we lead with value. We don't lead with, Hey, you know, what can you do for me? I'm like, Hey, you know, this is what I could provide. If you'd like this, you know, let's rock and roll you go, okay, let's do it. And we got it

booked. So, and guess. when your episode goes live and entrepreneurs on fire, you're gonna get hit up by a good number of people that have podcasts that use entrepreneurs on fire as like, okay, if that person's on entrepreneurs on fire, they're a legit guest. So now they're gonna hit you up to be on their show. You can go to other shows now and say, I've been on shows like entrepreneurs on fire. Here's a. Like it was very worth it for you to pursue that opportunity.

And all I had to do guys was pay John's mortgage for four months in a row. And then

that's it. You let me on the and I gotta mansion in the Caribbean. So it's not that bad.

Uh, I want to, um, so on for time's sake, do you want to do five more minutes or do you want do two more minutes? Cuz we're at 13, but we're on 10 of the

recording. Let's do five more minutes.

Five more minutes. Perfect. I am curious about the law of Reciproc. Because I am a very huge component and disciple of Gary V where it's jab, jab, jab, right hook. And I believe that the longer that you delay your ask, the bigger your ask can be in your business when you're providing value, especially in the content game. I've been listening to your show for about two, three years since I've been consuming podcasts religiously. And I'm curious about what point did you begin to monetize your show? At what point did you realize that there was a business potential in your show? And at what point did you make the ask of your audience? Um, I'm curious how much you gave before you

asked. So for seven months there was no monetization months, eight through 12, there was about $27,000 total of monetization. But I will say that almost all that came from sponsorships. So not for my listeners. It came from companies sponsors. And then at month 13, I made the first ask of my audience. And again, that was about 375 episodes in. So I gave my, my, my audience 375 episodes of entrepreneurs on fire before I made a real ask. And that ask was a product that I created called podcasters paradise. And that was our first. Major financial win and something that we still to this day, um, serve where we teach people how to create, grow, and monetize their podcast.

I love it. I'm curious. What part of this entire journey that you've been on has been most fulfilling for you?

Honestly, I would say the connections I've made with the 3,700 people that I've had on the. it's been so cool and so fulfilling to just meet people like yourself. And I mean, there's Tony Robbins, Gary Vanerchuk Barbara Corcoran and Tim Ferris. I mean, the list goes on and it's just cool meeting, talking with and engaging, and then building relationships and friendships with cool people. And that's what I've done now for 10 years,

I. What's next. What's the, what's the next vision for you? Where are you taking this now? That you're making seven, eight figures from this media company and you're running the empire on 4% Quatro, the Quatro.

Yeah, we are well into eight figures since we launched this company and it's been, uh, a great journey for sure. And honestly, it's one of those things where, you know, for me, I've never want, like, had this driver desire to become a billionaire. Sure. I've never had a driver desire to even like, you know, make hundreds of millions of dollars. Like, I love money. I'm a capitalist. Like obviously I've been making millions of dollars a year. Like it's, it's a big focus point for me, but I have like this thing where. Um, I'm really willing to trade so much for money. And then it has, for me, really turned the last number of years into how do I maximize my health? I've already built my, my war chest. I've already built, you know, a good financial foundation that I'm happy with. How do I focus on my health? Because I do love the quote that the healthy person wants a thousand things. the unhealthy. The unhealthy person wants one thing and that's to healthy, that's be healthy. if you're unhealthy, the only thing you want is to be healthy. So I am thrilled to be healthy. I want a thousand things as a result, I want travel and play pickle ball, and I want play with my dog and I wanna potentially start a family. Like there's a thousand things I wanna do. And I wanna, I know that in order to continue down that road, I've gotta focus on my health.

I love it. And I use that quote all the time on this show. And for everyone listening did know how much as John said today, how much has John said today that I've been telling you guys? So listen to him though. He's been listening

to me for years, so he's just don't listen, don't listen to me.

I'm just regurgitating,

you know, listen in the video, all standing. On the shoulders of giants. I learned from people who came before me, I implemented what worked. I shared what worked, you're doing the exact same thing. And it's a wonderful world that we live in. I

love it, my friend, and I I'll let you go here, but isn't it funny as a podcaster? Um, whenever you're speaking or whenever you're talking, you have like conscious brain and subconscious brain and somebody will say something or ask some type of business or entrepreneurship questioning, and then you just. Oh, I know the answer. Where did that come from? oh, 74 episodes ago. You had the conversation, right? So. I love it. My friend, thank you so much for coming on. We be conscious of your time and let you go back to, uh, surfing and frolicking on the sands

of Puerto Rico. Well, actually, you're, you're letting me get back to another six interviews. You are my fifth interview today. I have six more because again, it's so special. One day, one day per month, it's all about O P other people's podcasts. And that is the date today.

Let's go, John audios, brother. Thank you. Appreciate it. See ya.