I Did It Anyways John Lees Story - When I Grow Up

I Did It Anyways John Lees Story - When I Grow Up This series used to be called  The Recession is Bullhonkey series, where I shared stories of those who had gotten hired and/or started their own businesses (or sometimes both!) since 2008. In 2016, though, it felt irrelevant, so Ill now be sharing these made-my-dream-career-happen-despite-challenges-and-adversity stories under the title I Did It Anyways, because by golly, they did! And Im preeeeeeeeeeetty, preeeeeeeeetty, preeeeeeeetty over-the-moon to have the one and only John Lee Dumas here to kick this series off. Hes a big deal, you guys. Read why and how he got there-  below. Every morning my alarm clock would go off, and I’d wake up tired already dreading the day ahead. I’d check my phone immediately for any emails that had come through; then, I’d get in the shower, shave, and put on a suit. Around 7am I would jump in my car and drive to the office. I felt trapped uninspired and like I was running on the treadmill of life: constantly moving, but going nowhere. I’d drive to the office every day wondering where I had gone wrong. I’d done all the right things Graduated from college Officer in the US Army Worked in Corporate Finance Yet here I was, working in Commercial Real Estate, doing the same thing I’d been doing for the past 5 years: what I thought I was supposed to do. But where was the passion I was “supposed” to be feeling? I kept myself going by thinking as long as I did what everyone else told me I was supposed to, I’d one day find success. The year was 2011, and a couple of years prior I had been introduced to podcasts by a good friend of mine. At least I had my podcasts. Stuck in the car and continuing to jump from one unsuccessful showing to the next had me consuming hours of podcast episodes every single day. I’d finally found an outlet for inspiration and motivation: podcasts interviewing and sharing stories of successful individuals who had created the exact life they wanted to be living. Through these podcasts and the stories they shared I discovered the success they were living didn’t have anything to do with them getting a job tied to their degree and then climbing the corporate ladder. Their success was a result of them creating a business based on their expertise and their passions, and then sharing that with an audience who needed it. I was hooked. I started to have a love/hate relationship with being in the car; on one hand, it was my trap, and on the other, it was my inspiration. And then it happened: I ran out of podcasts to listen to. Eeek! After two years of listening to backlogged episodes from these podcasts, I had caught up with all of them. That’s when I had my a-ha moment. Why wasn’t someone creating a daily podcast that shared the same type of inspiration as those I was listening to? Why wasn’t someone interviewing successful individuals entrepreneurs and sharing their journey to success in order to inspire others to take their own entrepreneurial leap? The day I ran out of podcasts to listen to is the day I decided to be the change I wanted to see in the world. I was going to create that podcast. My ah-ha moment came to me in June 2012, and by August of that year I had quit my job in Commercial Real Estate to focus on learning exactly how I was going to create this podcast. Was it easy to leave the firm I had moved across the country to join just one year prior when I was on track for partnership? No way. It was incredibly difficult and scary. To add to that, I felt like I was going to be letting my family and friends down leaving a perfectly “comfy job” to leap into the unknown world of entrepreneurship. But because of my financial background and healthy saving habits, at least I had a runway to help support myself. This allowed me to focus on the Zig Ziglar quote that has literally guided my journey from the very start: “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” With fear, uncertainty, and no one to lean on for support who was going through the same thing as me, I lept. My immediate first step was to research as much as I possibly could. “Google, how do I create a podcast?” Then, once my research was off the ground, I hired a mentor who was exactly where I wanted to be: Jaime Tardy of The Eventual Millionaire. My next step? I started attending conferences in the entrepreneurial space so I could meet others who shared the same passions as me and who were also where I wanted to be. Most who I shared my idea with told me I was crazy that starting a daily podcast would never work. They said I’d get burnt out, that I wouldn’t be able to find enough people to interview, and that the few listeners I’d have would grow tired of hearing the same thing every day. I listened and then continued to FOCUS on my #1 goal: to launch a daily podcast interviewing today’s most successful and inspiring entrepreneurs in 100 days. In September 2012, I launched EOFire, the first daily podcast that interviewed successful and inspiring entrepreneurs and shared their journey. On May 14, 2013, nearly 8 month after I launched EOFire, I had 1 millions listens in over 145 countries, and I was interviewing some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world including Seth Godin, Barbara Corcoran and Gary Vaynerchuk. (Michelles note: I had the honor to be interviewed on  EOFire you can check it out here!) What I was looking for all along inspiration, and ultimately, freedom I found by choosing my own path, not the path others wanted me to follow. Today, over 25 million downloads and a multi-million dollar business under my belt, I realize the key to living the life I wanted to live started with setting and accomplishing my #1 goal. John Lee Dumas is the founder and host of EOFire, an award winning Podcast where he interviews todays most successful Entrepreneurs 7-days a week. JLD has interviewed over 1200 Entrepreneurs and has noticed they all share one thing in common: their ability to set and accomplish goals. That’s why he launched TheFreedomJournal: set and accomplish your #1 goal in 100 days!