This is a follow up story for Entrepreneurs on Fire. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 5 years ago, check it out here.

Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.

Heyo! John Lee Dumas here, founder and host of Entrepreneurs On Fire, a daily podcast interviewing today’s most inspiring and successful entrepreneurs!

Sound familiar?...

Well, you might have caught my initial Starter Story on How I went From Tank Commander In Iraq To Starting A $100K/Month Entrepreneurship Podcast back in 2021, or read about how we celebrated Our 10-Year Anniversary And Hit $200K MRR back in 2023.

Since then, I’ve continued to rock the mic for Fire Nation on a daily basis (batching my interviews one day a week, of course), and continued to serve the podcasting community with my flagship course, Podcasters’ Paradise.

While I produce the Entrepreneurs On Fire podcast for entrepreneurs looking for that added dose of inspiration to get their entrepreneurial journey started, I created Podcasters’ Paradise back in 2013 specifically for those looking to create, grow, and monetize their podcast.

To date, Entrepreneurs On Fire has grossed over $26 million, with a 78% net profit to overall gross revenue (meaning, we’ve netted over $20 million of that). Not many businesses can say that, and that’s exactly why we publish a monthly income report: to share exactly how we make - and spend - our money.

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If you want to be unique, stand out from the crowd, and create something that solves a real problem for people, then you’re going to have to find your path. Learn from those who come before you, but don’t try to duplicate what it is they’ve created.

Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?

As the online business landscape continues to change and shift with new technologies and platforms coming out seemingly every day, over the past year our team has been focused on testing out a lot of different things to see what will move the needle for us.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past 11 years in business, it’s that what works for one business doesn’t necessarily work for another.

Some of the things we’ve been testing out:

Creating a LinkedIn Newsletter and becoming a LinkedIn Contributor
Instagram
A/B testing with email optin’s

Since our business has never been big on paid advertising (we do zero of it), we’re always looking for ways to organically grow our following.

So from April to August of 2023, we went heavily into LinkedIn. We started a weekly newsletter and also teamed up with a LinkedIn expert to help us get approved as a contributor.

While we believe LinkedIn can be a powerful platform, we didn’t see the meaningful growth we were hoping for over that five month period.

Instagram on the other hand has been one of the best social media platforms for us in terms of brand awareness and growth. We continue to post on Instagram regularly and see it as a very good investment of our time.

We’ve recently started testing out some more interactive videos to promote each of our episodes versus the templated version we’ve always used in the past. While we don’t have much data to support whether this is working better, we’re hopeful the videos will be more engaging for those who are scrolling for content.

And finally, we strongly believe in the power of an email list, and so towards the end of 2023 we brought on a conversion expert to help us do some a/b testing to help improve our email optin rates.

Testing is still in progress, but we’re seeing incredible results so far!

The total % of all website traffic opting in and confirming their email from a recent test is 2.27% (our baseline was 1.79%). A 26% improvement – not bad!

Here’s a look at the main change we made that has been netting some great results…

Old optin:

New optin:

I learned many years ago, but it’s worth repeating because I don’t think a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs give themselves the time and space to consider it: Know what type of business you want to run.

What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?

Because I value lifestyle freedom at such a high level, I honestly haven’t been willing to invest the time and effort required to be on the cutting edge of some of the latest and greatest marketing strategies.

As a result, our business has plateaued.

While we’re still seeing incredible revenue and consistently netting well over $100k per month, our business has taken a bit of a dip from past years.

This has all been a very conscious choice, though. We love the business we’ve built and have full intentions to continue rockin’ the daily podcast. But when it comes to putting in 12 hour days and grinding, we’ve chosen to leave those days behind us.

We also just welcomed our first child into the world in November of 2023, which any parent knows is life-changing.

What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?

This is a lesson I learned many years ago, but it’s worth repeating because I don’t think a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs give themselves the time and space to consider it: Know what type of business you want to run.

Back in 2018, we made a conscious choice to run a lifestyle business. As a result, we cut over half of our team and decided to not continue doing big launches and creating new products and services.

This of course comes at a cost to the business. But when you’re clear on what you want for you and your life, business decisions become a lot easier.

What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?

For the first time in 11 years, we’ve considered what it would look like to sell a portion of the business or find a strategic partner to help us take the business to the next level.

We know there is so much potential for the business and the impact it can have on entrepreneurs, but it needs much more than we’re willing to give it to get there.

What’s the best thing you read in the last year?

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s book Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life.

All seven tools he talks about are critical, but the one that resonated with me the most - and that has been integral on my journey to building the business I have today - is direct communication. You’re not going to get very far if you can’t have difficult conversations and be able to communicate what it is that you want and need.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?

I’m a big proponent of looking to those who have come before you - who are where you want to be. But stop copying what other people are doing.

If you want to be unique, stand out from the crowd, and create something that solves a real problem for people, then you’re going to have to find your own path.

Learn from those who come before you, but don’t try to duplicate what it is they’ve created.

Where can we go to learn more?

If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!