Update: We Just Celebrated Our 10-Year Anniversary And Hit $200K MRR
This is a follow up story for Entrepreneurs on Fire. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published almost 6 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
Heyo! John Lee Dumas here, founder of Entrepreneurs On Fire (EOFire), a daily podcast where I interview today’s most successful and inspiring entrepreneurs! My goal: is to help you achieve financial freedom and fulfillment, all while doing what you love.
Oh, and this isn’t my first rodeo. You can check out my original Starter Story on how I grew a podcast into a $2M/year business.
Our flagship product here at EOFire is Podcasters’ Paradise, a community where we teach people how to Create, Grow, and Monetize their podcasts. We also generate a significant amount of revenue through our podcast sponsorships, but more on that later.
In 2022 we celebrated our 10th anniversary in business, and we continue to generate on average over $200k / month in revenue.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
EOFire has hit a beautiful stride that allows us financial, location, and lifestyle independence. But getting to this point has been a very conscious choice.
It’s not always about hiring, growing, and adding more of everything.
Around late 2018 and early 2019, I started making some very intentional decisions about where EOFire was headed.
What you typically hear in the business world is that you should be scaling and growing and adding more, more, more… Based on this sentiment, my decisions weren’t what you’d probably expect.
Yes, our team was growing, and we were hiring more contractors and had multiple retainers with designers and strategists... We had multiple online courses, were hosting webinars, had multiple marketing funnels, and all that jazz.
But I couldn’t fight the feeling that something was off balance.
So we took a step back and looked at the core of our business.
“What are the 5 things that we LOVE doing in our business, that create a BIG impact for our audience, and that generate the most revenue?”
Answering this question not only gave us a new focus moving forward, but it also made our mission abundantly clear: it’s not always about hiring, growing, and adding more of everything.
It’s about figuring out what type of business YOU want to run - that supports the lifestyle you want - and then amplifying the activities that can give you both: a thriving business, and a fulfilling life.
Our core focus became - and remains:
- Podcast sponsorships
- Podcasters’ Paradise
- Our affiliate relationships
- Our marketing funnels
- Our Journals (The Freedom Journal, The Mastery Journal, The Podcast Journal)
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
Finding my next passion.
EOFire isn’t going anywhere, and I do. But because we’ve got the systems and the team set up and firing on all cylinders, it has opened up a lot of space and time for me.
I’m on a mission to find my next passion project!
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
Everything I’ve accomplished, I’ve accomplished because I was willing to be bad at it in the beginning.
The importance of balance in everything we do has been something I’m focused on and am learning a lot about. From health, to work, to finances, to relationships, to fun.
When you’re running a business you love, it’s easy to get wrapped up in it. How this affects other areas of your life is significant, and it’s important to keep that top of your mind.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
What’s wild and exciting about the online space is that it’s changing and growing so fast.
Something I’m excited about right now is the developments in AI.
Doing a deep dive and learning about how AI can integrate with our current business model - as well as future business ideas and opportunities - is a focus of mine for the next year and beyond.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
Health and wellness continue to be my main focus of mine. The Rain Barrel Effect, by Dr Stephen Cabral, is a must-read!
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
Keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Action reveals answers, and if you’re constantly looking for that golden ticket that’s going to change everything for you - stop looking. The magic is in doing.
Everything I’ve accomplished, I’ve accomplished because I was willing to be bad n the beginning.
I’ve learned A LOT from my mentors and those who have come before me, but my success? That’s because I’ve put in the reps.
Where can we go to learn more?
- Website
- Subscribe to Entrepreneurs on Fire and our other podcasts
- Podcasters’ Paradise
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
