Imagine if you had the 17 steps you needed to go from where you are today to phenomenal success with your online business! In this episode, John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneurs On Fire shares success secrets for course creators - from his new book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success.
Imagine if you had the 17 steps you needed to go from where you are today to phenomenal success with your online business! In this episode, John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneurs On Fire shares success secrets for course creators - from his new book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success.
LINKS MENTIONED
Get The Common Path to Uncommon Success book (and all the pre-launch bonuses and 3 journals if you are listening before March 23, 2021).
http://www.FreePodcastCourse.com - John's free course on podcasting.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Here are some of the success secrets from John:
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
~ Einstein
“Success leaves clues.”
~ Tony Robbins
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Imagine if you had the 17 steps you needed to go from where you are today to phenomenal success with your online course business today, John Lee Dumas of entrepreneurs on fire is here to share the details all about his brand new book. So let's get to it. Welcome to the course creators, HQ podcast, helping you navigate the latest techniques for creating and marketing online courses.
And now here's your host Julie Hood. There's a new success book Coming out in March of 2021. And today I have the author here to share his secrets. The incredibly Successful founder and host of the entrepreneurs on fire podcast is here to chat with us. And before we start, I want to be sure and send you to get a copy of his book.
It's called the common path to uncommon success. That's right, the common path to common success. And as part of the pre-launch for the book, he's giving away some incredibly impressive bonuses. My favorites are the three free journals to help you succeed the freedom journal, the mastery journal and the podcast journal. They're all free. When you pre order his book,
just go to coursecreatorshq.com/31, or the link in the show notes for the link to pre-order the book. Now let's grab some success secrets from John. Hey John, thank you so much for being here for the course creators HQ podcast. And I am so excited to tell everybody about your new book, the common path to uncommon success. Can you tell us a little bit about why you wrote it and how it all came together?
Well, first off, thanks for having me here. I'm looking forward to giving a lot of value to all the course creators out there. I've been creating and developing and selling my own courses for a long, long time about a decade now. So I've definitely learned a lot and we'll talk about that for sure. But yeah, this book right here at the common path,
uncommon success, it is a combination of the 3000 interviews that I've done with the world's most successful entrepreneurs from your Tony Robbins, your Barbara Corcorans, your Gary Vaynerchuks, Tim Ferriss, the world all the way through 3000 individuals. And I've gleaned 17 principles that all successful entrepreneurs share. And I put them into a chronological 17 step roadmap that will lead you to financial freedom and fulfillment.
So if that's something that is interesting to you, financial freedom and fulfillment, the combination of both this book is the roadmap to get you there. It's the common path to uncommon success. Oh my gosh. I cannot wait to read it because you're giving us the actual roadmap. So I'm anxiously waiting for the launch day. So thank you. And let's jump into a little bit with the course creation.
So the other day I heard you mentioned that your best funnel for your business is that you have a free course at freepodcastcourse.com. So can you tell us about how that came together? Like how it works and, and why you think it works so well for all my course creators. All of the successful course creators that I have engaged with over the last decade have one thing in common.
They have the best solution to a real problem, and they offer that we shouldn't in the form of a course, and it's a fantastic way to go about it. The course creators that I've met over the years that have failed or struggled have like the second best solution or the 10th best solution to a real problem. And guess what people want the best.
So you need to be able to look yourself in the mirror and honestly say, this course that I've created is the best solution to a real problem that my audience has. Once you have that you can get into creating a funnel. Now what's, you know, I want to talk about right now is what I consider my best model. This is definitely my most profitable funnel.
And I realized after about one year of podcasting through asking my audience what they were struggling with, they kept coming back with some version of, well, John, I love how you interview people about business ideas, but I'm passionate about music and fitness and fill in the blank. How can I create a podcast on that topic? How do I even start?
And I was like, oh, I didn't actually know there was such an audience out there, or people actually want to start their own podcast. But once I did, and I realized that was a real struggle. I said, I can create that solution and I can create the best solution for that because there really wasn't any solutions out there. And the ones that were,
that were the very few ones, weren't that good. So I immediately sat down. I created an amazing free course that I called, as you mentioned, free podcast course.com. So now I had an incredible call to action for people who said, John, like, I really want to start my podcast. It wasn't go buy this thousand dollars course. It was well,
Hey, here's a free course. This free course is going to teach you how to create and launch your podcast. And that was very strategic and very, I should say it worked very well because guess what happens? People went, they took my training. It was videos just like this, where I was teaching people how to create their podcasts, how to launch their podcast.
And they built up reciprocity, no lake and trust with me. They got to see how I started to educate how I taught. And they resonated with that style. And then guess what? They launched their podcast. And this is key. What happens when people launch their podcast, they want to grow their audience. Now they want to start making money with their podcasts.
That's when I brought in the offer of Podcaster's paradise, my paid premium community, which is the best podcasting community in the world on how to grow and monetize your podcast. So I'm saying, listen, I've taught you how to create and launch it. Now you want to take it to the next step. You know, like, and trust me, let's do this.
Here's Podcaster's paradise. And that funnel works so well because of that very reason. So think to yourself as a course creator, how can I deliver real, tangible solutions? Like creating your podcast, launching your podcasts. Those are real tangible solutions. Those are big wins. And so I gave that to people. And then what was the next logical step that they needed and wanted to take that was growing their podcast that was monetizing their podcast.
And that was Podcaster's paradise. So when you can create a funnel that does that in your space, you're on fire. I just love How you put that into the customer journey, because you were thinking about what the steps were that people were taking and then filling in the holes for them along the way. That's fantastic. So, yeah. And then how about like getting momentum going,
because I know that's a big challenge for folks. They finally get their course created and then it's like, oh, now I have to sell this. So do you have some suggestions for us? The reality is this. If you're having trouble getting momentum is because you're not going back to step one that I talked about already having the best solution to a real problem.
Most people again have the fifth best solution to a real problem, how to lose 10 pounds in 10 days. There's 50 courses out there that say that exact same thing. How are they going to decide which one to choose? How do you know, how do they know you're the best? Well, you're not because there's so many out there. You can't distinguish yourself.
You need to take your big idea, whatever that thing might be and be able and willing to initially niche down into an underserved part of that market into a void. That's not being filled by your competition and you serve that the best because once you are the best solution to a real problem, no matter how small or niche it is, people will beat a path to your door.
Cause people want the best. They want the best. That's why Amazon reviews means so much because people want the best. So if you can't honestly look in the mirror right now and say that you have the best solution to a real problem, then it's time to find a niche, avoid an opportunity in your specific marketplace. Still within that same concept that you're in.
That's not being exploited to the best manner that you can become the best in. Perfect. And I think this sort of falls up on that is you have two chapters in the book about customer avatars. So is, is that where we figure out our niche and have you seen some people that do well Or a lot of the folks I work with- it's not where you discover your niche because listen,
step one of this book is identifying your big idea. You're going to learn to identify your big idea in step one. And a lot of you might be like, well, I already have my big idea. Maybe you do, and that'll be good. Cause you'll be able to either confirm or validate it or make some incredibly important tweak adjustments and pivots to really make sure you have your big idea.
But a lot of you are going to realize it's not your big idea that you thought it was. It's just a weak pale imitation of somebody. Else's big idea. That's what most people have. Step two is discovering your niche within the big idea. That's not currently being filled. What I just was talking about because listen, your big idea. Once you go through this,
this chapter, step one, and you identify your big idea, you're going to be excited and you should be, cause it's a great idea. And I really mean that, but guess what other people have great ideas. And if you're really have a great idea, which you do, other people have had that idea and that's okay, that's actually proof of concepts,
but you just can't launch into that big idea because there's already established competition. Step two is discovering your niche within that big idea. That's not currently being filled. And then step three was your point about the avatars that's after you've discovered the niche that you need to fill. That's when you sit down and really craft your perfect avatar, the perfect customer client for your course.
That's the third step. I Love that. Okay. Thank you. We will get into all of those chapters when we can grab the book. Yeah. Not the 23rd. I mean, you know, you haven't had a chance to read it yet. I get it. Yeah. Yeah. So how did you find your big idea? And I know you've probably been asked that a million times,
but Great question. And if your listeners haven't heard it, it's an important one because it can help them on their journey. I was reading a business book back in 2012 and a quote jumped off the page and literally smack me in the face. Albert Einstein said, try not to become a person of success, but rather a person of value. And I was like,
whoa, like I've only been chasing success, finding none, but I'm doing nothing of value. So I set off that day on a journey to become a person of value. And I didn't know what that was going to look like, but I kept educating myself, reading, listening, learning, all those things. And that's when I had the idea of,
well, what's something that I wish existed in this world. Well, I wanted there to be a daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs cause I wanted to listen to that show and it didn't exist. There were podcasts, there were business podcast, which was the next dish down. There were business podcasts interviewing entrepreneurs, but I niched down a fourth time. I discovered my niche by going for niches deep daily podcast,
interviewing entrepreneurs. That was an unexploited void in the marketplace that needed to be filled. That was an underserved, in fact, non-served portion of the marketplace that I knew there was a need for. And I became the best daily podcast interviewing the day that I launched. I was also the worst daily podcast interviewing on the day that I launched. Guess what?
I was the only daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs because I niched down. I own the niche I dominated. I won because I was the only, you need to be the best. So either you're the best because your competition is not as good as you they're weaker than you, or you're the best because you're the only both of them are, are great. Both of them make you the best.
That's the key. And that's why I came with my big idea. That's such a good story. And what do you say to people who say, well, I don't want to niche down because then I will lose customers or lose clients because I want to serve everybody. I say, when you try to resonate with everybody, you're going to resonate with nobody.
And when you say those words that you just heard, guess what? You are repeating the same words of almost every single entrepreneur and you are repeating the same words of every entrepreneur who has failed because that is a failure loser strategy. And I get why you want to do that. And I understand why you think in that inexperienced unsuccessful, entrepreneurial brain of yours,
that that's the way to go, which by the way I had back in 2012, I had an inexperienced unsuccessful entrepreneurial brain. Cause we all do when we start. And if you listen to that brain, instead of listening to somebody who's been successful, like the 3000 people I've been able to interview in this book, then you understand the power of niching.
And if you don't understand the power of niching, you will lose, you will fail. That's such good advice. I hope everybody heard that. If you don't understand the power of niching, you will lose, you Will lose. Listen. I just, I have to say it in this manner because otherwise people just don't understand. If you try to be kind of nice and say it in like a more general,
like less blunt way, they're just like, oh, well I guess maybe I can just kind of still like, you know, not niche and, and I've seen it. I've seen it a million times and I've seen a million failures. So we will get everybody on the right track right now. So one of the Other
And I heard you telling the story. Maybe you can tell everybody about writing this book because you broke it down into a daily practice. And can you tell us about that and how that worked for you? Listen, if you're going to win in this world, you've got to identify your content production plan. And that's actually step seven in this book. It's 13,500 words.
Just that chapter. That's the size of most business books. This book is a meaty business book. This is 71,000 words, 273 pages, just chapter seven, took me weeks to write and it's my content production plan. And I use my own contribution plan and writing this book every day for the first two hours of every single day for eight months, 480 writing hours.
I wrote this book, not five hours a day, not three hours a day, two hours a day, because those are my best two hours of every day with my clearest head, with my sharpest minds. I wrote this book and that was it. And because I set up in that manner and I did it every single day and it was a non-negotiable.
I wrote this book in eight months and I got it out the door and it's the best work of my life period. That's how I want. And again, we don't have time, unfortunately, to go into super detail about what it means to create a content production plan. But listen, I'm into my first decade here. I'm entering my ninth year of entrepreneurs on fire and we just hit 90 months in a row of a net profit of a hundred thousand dollars or more every single month.
The reason for that is because we have a fantastic spectacular content production plan and almost nobody else does, by the way, ours sucked back in 2012. My content production plan was only okay. In 2014 and 16, it's gotten just better and better exponentially over the years to where now it is spectacular. And I say that again, not out of ego,
but out of the fact that it is awesome because it's taken us almost 10 years of working on it to make it awesome. And everybody starts at the same place, not having a content production plan. This book will get you to your content production plan because I'm giving you the keys in 13,500 words. So it's not going to be a quick skim. It's going to be a meaty,
detailed, focused, you know, section for you to really sit down. But, but you had the keys now to your content production plan is the reason why we've won at such a high at such a high financial level for so long. And why so many people who are struggling are struggling because they don't have a plan like this. They don't have this plan,
concert production plans make the winner separates the winners and the losers. Oh, so good. And it reminds me of the quote that success leaves clues. So let's use all of the clues that you've pulled together for us and put it all. So to save us, we don't have to spend the 10, 10 years figuring it all out. You've pulled it all together for us.
So thank you so much for doing this interview. There's so many nuggets in here. I can't wait to share with the audience and get your book. I'll share a real quick as we're kind of wrapping up is if you're hearing my voice in this before March 23rd, you want to pre-order this book because you can wait till after March 23rd, that's fine. The book is going to be available.
It's amazing. But before March 23rd, we have five amazing bonuses, just one of those bonuses. I'm shipping all three of my journals, the freedom and mastery and podcasts journal, a order right there. She's gone all three of these journals. That's just one of the bonuses. There's four other amazing bonuses. Check them all out. Uncommon success. book.com.
You'll see endorsements from Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Neil Patel, Eric and Mandy Dorie Clark. There's a video there about the book. There's first chapters there. So everything you need, uncommon success, book.com. Pre-order get this book now get the bonuses. And I really enjoyed chatting today. Thanks so much, John. I know you're off to do a ton more interviews today,
so thank you. Have a great Day. Take care. Bye bye. So I hope you pulled out the golden nuggets from John Lee Dumas from this interview. I was so grateful. He took the time to chat with us, especially about course creation and how to make it successful. And I want to thank you for subscribing. Thank you for listening and thank you for reviewing.
If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a five star review in your app and then jump over to the notes. At course, creators hq.com/ 31 that's slash 31. And I'll have the link to get your copy of the book. Thanks so much, have a fantastic week and we will catch you next week.