Why you need to rethink being busy and chasing success, says this podcaster

A photo of John.

This article is part of Tech in Asia’s partnership with The Jay Kim Show where we publish the revised transcripts from the show’s podcast interviews with top entrepreneurs. This is heavily revised from the original show transcripts. For the full interview, go here.

John Lee Dumas has a very inspirational story. After college, he served in the Army in Iraq. When he got back from his tour of duty, he tried a number of things including working in finance, going to law school, and even joining a tech startup. However, nothing really worked. Finally, he moved to San Diego and started working as a real estate agent. It was then on his daily commute to work when he was listening to the radio that he realized there was no daily podcast on entrepreneurship. That’s when he had the idea to start his own.

In 2013, his show was named best of iTunes. Now, he generates more than seven figures in annual revenue. Let’s jump right in.

For people who want to start a podcast, what’s the best way to get started?

“For me, it’s all about batching. I don’t do a podcast every single day. I release a podcast every single day, so a podcast is going live every Monday through Monday, 30 days a month, 365 days a year, but I’m only recording episodes a couple of days a month. In those couple of days, I am doing 30 episodes so that I’m scheduling them to be released. […] I also batch my interviews in other shows. I just make sure that I have them go back to back, so I can just wake up in the morning and say, ‘You know what, I’m crushing interviews on other shows today.’ That’s what I do.

“Having a batching process where you’re actually going and just doing multiple [episodes], […] that’s so beneficial on so many levels because then you can use the other time you have—the rest of the month, the rest of the day, or the rest of the week—to work on other things. So it’s very critical that you are utilizing your time in the most effective manner possible.”

How do you start growing a subscriber base? 

“A lot of people make the mistake of launching a podcast and having that mentality [from] Field of Dreams […], that movie with Kevin Costner where they say, ‘If you build it, they will come.’ The reality is this: podcasting is amazing for a number of reasons. It allows you to put your show on massive platforms like iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, and Google Play. That’s huge, that’s amazing, but you can’t just rely on people finding your show through these huge mediums because there’s a lot of shows to be found.

“You need to know, inside and out, who is my perfect listener? Who is that one perfect listener for my podcast? Once you know who that perfect listener is and you know that person inside and out, then you go out into the world and you find those people. Where are they hanging out? They’re in Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, [or] they’re going to meet-ups in your local area. […] Don’t just walk up to them and shake their hand or get on a Facebook group and just spam your link right away. Build a relationship with that person in that group […]. Add value, add guidance, ask a question, or answer a question. Be a person of value for a significant amount of time.

“[…] Between 30 to 45 days, just be a person of value in those communities. And then down the road when it makes sense say, ‘Oh Jay, that’s actually a great question. I just answered that on episode 12 of my podcast. Here’s the link if you want to check it out.’ Now you’ve been a person of value for a long time. So not just Jay, but everybody else that has the same question in that community is going to want to know a little bit more about that. They’ll be like, ‘Oh, I think John’s a great guy. I want to go check out his podcast and see what’s going on there.’ […] Do things right—build relationships, go to where your perfect listeners are, and create value there.”

Are there things you do on a weekly or daily basis that just keep you in check?

“[…] I actually don’t have one of the busiest schedules out there. I actually don’t even like the word busy because I feel like busy is just a crutch that so many people use. Like, ‘I’m so busy. I barely have time to breathe.’ […] I’m like, ‘How busy are you? What are you busy doing exactly? Because listen, I made a couple hundred thousand dollars last month, and I don’t feel I was super busy […], so are you really spending your time in the best possible way?’ […] Maybe what you need to do is step back and really question where you’re busy and where are you just not being effective with the time that you’re spending?

“I want to just be honest here. We all start having to build the foundation. My first year in the business, I made US$26,000 in the entire year, and most of that came at the end of the year. It’s not like snapping [your] fingers and all of a sudden you’re generating a seven-figure-a-year business. It’s definitely building a process. […] Really make sure you’re doing the right things every day, not just doing things to do them. I think that’s a really important distinction.

“For me, it’s going back to that theme that we’ve been talking about a little bit, which is batching. I make sure that, when I’m busy, I am busy. I have 15 interviews today. […] But guess what? This is the only day of the entire month that I’m doing any interviews on any other shows. This is the one day. I’m looking at my schedule tomorrow [and] I literally have nothing on my schedule for the next 6 days. […] Why? Because I batch.

“Just really know what plan you want to execute as an entrepreneur, create the plan, and then execute it. […] Make sure that the distractions—the Facebook newsfeeds and the YouTube waterfall of videos—need to wait. You need to treat yourself to those things when the time is right, but only after you’ve committed to finishing the plan that you set up for yourself.”

What is the one piece of advice that you’d like to part with?

“The mistake that I made for the first 32 years of my life was […] chasing success. I was chasing money; I was chasing what I thought was respect in this world. I know [respect is] a big word in the Asian culture as well; we want to require respect from our peers, from our family, and from our friends. That’s big in the United States as well. I was chasing those things, but it wasn’t until I read this quote by Albert Einstein that things really shifted for me and that quote is: ‘Try not to become a person of success, but rather become a person of value.’