“Listen, life is a journey and all of my failures - which were plentiful before EOFire - added to the success of EOFire. They were all life lessons and all experiences I had to learn from and go through in order to launch and run a multi-million dollar a year company, which EOFire has grown into. It's just really looking at life as a marathon: you're 26 when you get out of the military, or you're 36, or you're 56 - whatever it is. You have a LOT of life left. So stop trying to rush, stop trying to sprint everywhere. Just look at life as a marathon, set your site on your goals and then just take them one step at a time." – John Lee Dumas

John Lee Dumas is the founder and host of EOFire, a daily podcast that interview entrepreneurs 7 days a week, where, as reported by Forbes, he has generated #2M in sales by his second year in the business. He started out at Providence College where he did Army ROTC, after which he served in the Army as an Armor Platoon Leader for eight years. After his time in the Army, John enrolled in Law School, but left after his first semester. He then worked in corporate finance at John Hancock in Boston, and later at a tech startup in New York. In 2009 he moved to San Diego to work in real estate. During his long drives, he started listening to podcasts, until he decided to start his own podcast, which launched in September of 2012. He is the author of Podcast Launch, the creator of Podcasters’ Paradise, and has been named the Best of iTunes in 2013, with over 7.4 Million downloads. and subscribers in 145 countries. John is very open about his financials - they’re available on his website - it’s worth checking out because the numbers are staggering.

The top two reasons to listen to this episode are:

1. Entrepreneurship - JLD is a legend as an entrepreneur and has extremely relevant and tactical advice for any veteran interested in working for oneself, earning extra income on the side, or wanting to grow a passion product.
2. Resources - JLD is a storage vault of resources for entrepreneurs and the interview is full of practical steps veterans can take - today - to get started on their startup journey.

Our Sponsor

Audible is offering one FREE audio book to Beyond the Uniform listeners. You can claim this offer here, and see a list of books recommended by my guests at BeyondTheUniform.io/books

Selected Links

• Fizzle - two weeks of a free trial, reasonably priced, and a great community of early stage entrepreneurs (no affiliation with JLD or EOFire)
• Patt Flynn's Show, The Smart Passive Income Blog
• Fill in the Blank
• Freedom Journal - 16k sales, changes being made in people’s lives. Set & Accomplish one big goal.
• Podcasters Paradise - a great community of podcasters
• John's Free Podcast Course
• Recommended podcasts
  • Tony Robbins
  • Aaron Walker - view from the top
  • Tim Ferriss
  • Gary Vaynerchuk
  • Barbara Corcoran
• More info on John and his background
• A great Forbes article on John and EO Fire

Show Notes

• 3:20 - John's decision to leave the Army and how he approached this decision
• 4:53 - What habits John had to break from the military in order to be successful in his civilian career
• 5:37 - Johns road to EOFire and advice he'd give to veterans seeking to start their own company
• 8:21 - How long it took for John to be able to pay himself a salary while starting his company, EOFire
• 10:26 - One of the biggest mistakes that John has made with EOFire and what he learned from it
• 12:07 - What resources John would recommend to veterans thinking of starting their own company
• 15:01 - The episodes of EOFire John would recommend most to Beyond the Uniform listeners
• 16:15 - John's final words of wisdom for veterans