AMY PORTERFIELD: Hey there, Amy Porterfield here. Welcome to another episode of The Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast. If you’re catching us right when we went live with this episode then I’ve got to take a minute and tell you Happy New Year! I am thrilled to ring in the New Year with you, and let me tell you, we have some really exciting episodes planned for you.
We are going to be focusing on list building and building campaigns in your business so that you can sell more online. We’re going to be talking a lot about content creation and making sure that you’re getting in front of the right people to make the biggest impact.
We’re also going to make sure you are creating a business that you love as well as creating online training programs and products that your audience can’t get enough of. Again, we have some really cool episodes in store for you.
Before we get there, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about setting up the year in a way that you are just ready to attack. One of the ways you can do that is by sitting down and asking yourself what you are going to focus on, what is most important to you, and how you are going to get there.
I have a special guest for this episode. His name is John Lee Dumas. Most of you know John if you are in my tribe because we have a lot of overlap in terms of our audiences. But, just in case you don’t know John, he is the founder and host of Entrepreneur On Fire.
His podcast, EOFire, has been named one of Best of iTunes, which is a huge honor. He launched it in 2012 and has gone on to have millions of downloads and create some amazing success in his business. He is really interesting to watch because he talks a lot about how he does what he does.
I love when people take you behind the scenes of their business and explain how it works and how they have had the successes they have had and what failures they have had. He is one of those guys so you definitely want to check John out if you haven’t yet been introduced to all of his content.
He has created a 7-figure+ business in just a few short years. He has multiple online training programs, he speaks all over the world about podcasting and business building and the mindset of an entrepreneur, and he has created this tribe that he affectionately calls Fire Nation.
This tribe is insanely dedicated to success. It’s a really cool tribe to watch and see what they do and just see all of the enthusiasm and support they give to one another. If you’re not part of Fire Nation, definitely check out Entrepreneur On Fire where you can get all of the details.
I wanted to have John on the show because he is going to talk about a very special tool he created to help you get started with the New Year in a way that you have immense focus and clarity about where you want to focus and what you want to do. I don’t want to give it all away just yet so I’ll go ahead and let John explain that to you but I hope you get immense value out of this interview, I know I did. I really love what he has to share.
I won’t keep you waiting any longer, let’s go ahead and dive in.
Amy: John Lee Dumas, thanks so much for being with me here today. I really appreciate it.
John: Amy Porterfield, you are one of my favorite people in Southern California. I couldn’t be more excited to be chatting with you.
Amy: It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re talking about one of my very favorite topics. First of all, moving into the New Year, new beginnings, getting things started again, creating new things, I love it all. We are also going to be talking about setting some goals in a very, very specific way.
I’ve got to know, right off the bat, is the New Year as exciting to you as it is for me?
John: I love 2016. I was born on December 16 so it’s kind of a special number for me.
Amy: It is, definitely. Have you always been a big goal setter for the New Year?
John: Always. I do trace it back to when I first got into the Army. It was always that year-to-year training and we always set big goals at the beginning of each new year. Then, by the end we would accomplish those goals so I just kind of carried that forward into business and entrepreneurship and have always seen the results.
Amy: That is fantastic because you’ve built this entire empire around Entrepreneur On Fire. We’re going to get into some of those specifics and how you did it. I almost feel silly doing this, but so many people know of you, know of your show, I kind of gave you a good intro in the beginning, but tell us a little bit about yourself in the way that you would talk to brand new person who wonders what the heck you do. How are you so successful? What would you say?
John: I would preface it by saying that I spent my late 20s and early 30s just trying to figure stuff out in a lot of different areas: Law school, corporate finance, commercial real estate, and I didn’t. But one thing I didn’t stop doing throughout all of that was learning. I read the right books, I listened to the right audio books and the right podcasts.
I was so inspired by podcasts that I decided to start one of my own. I wanted to be unique and different so I decided to launch the first and only seven-day-a-week podcast and interviewed inspiring and successful entrepreneurs. I hired a mentor and mutual friend of ours, Amy, Jaime Tardy.
Back in September of 2012 I launched EOFire, a seven-day-a-week podcast interviewing successful and inspiring entrepreneurs. We’ve just hit over 1,200 episodes to date. We’ve had over 24 million downloads. We are averaging about 1.2 to 1.3 million listens every single month. We’re just having a blast doing it.
Amy: Wow, those numbers are incredible! I know we’ve talked about you starting your show on another one of my episodes (Episode #22) and I will link to it because it was really fun interviewing you then. But I wanted to bring you on today because after 1,200 interviews, I’m guessing you’ve learned a thing or two about how entrepreneurs have created their success. Would I be right?
John: You’d be completely correct, as usual, Amy Porterfield.
Amy: Oh stop! Tell me what you’ve seen. What have you learned over 1,200 interviews that pretty much has gotten you to think there is a pattern here?
John: I love Fire Nation. That’s how I refer to my audience, my listeners. They are very communicative. They email me, tweet, send Facebook messages, and one question they keep asking me is, “John, you’ve done over 1,200 interviews today. What’s the one thing, the one silver bullet that everyone seems to be looking for that’s so elusive, what is the one commonality that all of your guests who are both successful and inspiring have?”
I’m a big believer there is no silver bullet. It’s all hard work and getting your nose down to the grindstone, for sure. But I step back and ask what is one thing the Amy Porterfield’s and Pat Flynn’s and Michael Stelzner’s of the world all do well. I just sat back and, beyond the hard things we just shared about hard work, etc., these people all know how to set and accomplish goals.
They all do it in a very effective manner; myself included. In looking at Fire Nation and people who were struggling and emailing me long, detailed emails about why they were struggling, I was identifying that they were just not able to set and accomplish goals in an effective way.
This is such a black and white scenario where on the one hand the successful entrepreneurs I’m interviewing are all setting and accomplishing goals and on the other hand the listeners that I have are not doing that same thing and I can fix this because there is a structure to setting and accomplishing goals; specifically the setting part of it. I really dedicated 2015 to doing just that.
Amy: So that was your big goal of 2015, figuring out how to get your Fire Nation to learn how to take action with setting goals?
John: January 2015 I sat down and said by the end of this year I will have created a system and tool for Fire Nation to do just that.
Amy: That’s a perfect segue because we are going to talk about that tool. I literally have it in my hands. It is called the Freedom Journal: Accomplish Your Goals in 100 Days. First of all, let’s say this, it is beautiful. This is a beautiful book you’ve created. I call it a book but it’s really actionable, it’s a journal in every sense of the word.
First of all, you didn’t spare anything in terms of making this really gorgeous.
John: I will say this, both you and myself and other entrepreneurs have done really well and have been very successful creating online communities and virtual products and those things are amazing. They help a lot of people and I’m going to continue doing that throughout my career, for sure.
With this particular project, I wanted to have a physical product in hand. I wanted it to be something people could touch and that they could have on their desk. They could put it in their book bag to pull out at coffee shops. That’s just how I envisioned it. That was my little a-ha moment that I had for this whole idea of setting and accomplishing a goal.
I really thought the physical product was key. When I set out to generate it in 2015 I knew I could have a PDF out in 30 days. It would be effective but it wouldn’t have the same kind of effect this physical, gorgeous product would have. So I teamed up with all the right people and I invested a lot of money to sourcing materials, finding the right factories, and doing all of the things it takes.
It’s a lot of work to do this and I can see why not many people do it. Man, it took a lot of time and resources and a lot of up-front capital to make this happen. Now you are holding it in your hand, Amy, and I’m actually holding it in my hand as well. The Freedom Journal is now a physical product that just came from an idea and is now something I can hold and smell because it is that leather that you talked about.
But I want to be clear, I’m an animal lover. This is faux leather, it is not a real leather. It is gold embossed, gold leafed, and has a great bookmark with a gold tassel. My designer worked so hard on the illustrations within. I wanted it to be something that people were proud of. If you’re proud of it you will show it to other people. And guess what happens when you show it to other people? You start getting accountable because they will see you a month later and say, “You showed me that beautiful journal you were writing in. How’s that going?”
Amy: Exactly.
John: It’s accountability. So the Freedom Journal is not just something you can hide on your desktop in some kind of folder. This thing is 300 pages. Amy, you could beat your husband over the head with it if he starts acting up.
Amy: That’s so very true. This is mammoth, for sure. So you’ve got to break this down. What is the Freedom Journal? What is it all about?
John: I wanted to set the Freedom Journal off in simplicity. I believe within simplicity lies beauty. It has a simple tag line: Accomplish Your Goal in 100 Days. I thought a lot about the timing of it and for me 100 days seems like attainable. I can commit 100 days to doing something.
It doesn’t seem to be too far off like a year or too quick like a week. I really wanted it to be the perfect medium so I settled on 100 days. The Freedom Journal is all about setting and accomplishing your goal in 100 days. That’s the focus of it. Again, it is any goal you might have.
Maybe you want to lose 10 pounds. Maybe you want to run a marathon or launch your first webinar. It could be any of these things. I wanted it to be for people that struggle with setting and accomplishing goals. But it is the guide that takes you step by step literally from page one to page done.
Amy: You have some unique things in here. You have sprints. Talk to me about these ten-day sprints that you have going on.
John: I am big in breaking things down into bite-size chunks.
Amy: So am I. That’s why we love each other so much! We think alike.
John: We definitely do. I have learned so much from you. Honestly, this is a lot of what’s going into it, my past guests, people like yourself and other great entrepreneurs all make up parts of this journal and they just make it work.
Let’s talk about the sprints. But, even before we get into that, let’s take one quick step back. This is a critical point on the beginning part, before you even get into accomplishing that goal with the 10-day sprints and the other things we will be talking about in a second, people struggle so much, Amy, even setting that original goal.
The original setting of the goal is so critical because we can get off and decide to start on Day One, Day Two, Day Ten, whatever. But then if you don’t have the right goal then you’re just not going to accomplish it in any kind of meaningful manner.
I didn’t create this acronym, it’s an acronym that’s been out there and has been referenced by tons of brilliant people and in tons of books, but it makes so much sense that I didn’t want to improve a perfect wheel that’s been created so we start the Freedom Journal by me teaching and guiding you in how to set a SMART goal. That’s an acronym, Amy, for Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time bound.
Every good goal has to have those five attributes. If not, you’re really setting yourself up for potential failure. That’s the very beginning part of the book. It is just the first little section that walks you through step by step so you know by the end of the first section that you have set a smart goal and you feel good about it. Everybody you share with feels good about it because it will make sense to them when you explain it in this manner. And then you’re off to the races.
It is then time for sprint #1.
Amy: Let’s make this really actionable. That is my favorite thing to do on this show. We’re going to walk through two different SMART goals. The first one is you launching Entrepreneur On Fire and the second one is all about how I launched Webinars That Convert, my latest program. We want to make it really actionable and I want you to walk us through these so other people can do it when they get the journal.
John: I love this. We hadn’t rehearsed this at all.
Amy: I’m a little nervous.
John: Rightfully so. This is going to be fun though. Let’s kind of break mine down first.
Amy: That will help me a little bit.
John: I wanted to launch a daily podcast. That was my big a-ha moment. If I just set out to do that, disaster would have been the result. But luckily, as I mentioned previously, a mutual friend of ours, Jaime Tardy, was my mentor.
We didn’t exactly set up this SMART goal but it was something close enough that it really made it work for me. I wish I had this structure back then because it would have been even better. But, let’s start with the S, which is specific.
SMART – “S” – Specific
I wanted to launch a daily podcast on September 22, 2012, interviewing successful and inspiring entrepreneurs. I was very specific on what I was looking to do.
SMART – “M” – Measurable
I wanted to have 40 interviews complete by the launch date. This would make sure that I had enough in the bank, so to speak, so I could keep up a daily format and continue to go forward in a consistent manner. It was measurable. I knew I had to have 40 done.
SMART – “A” – Attainable
It was June 12 when I set the goal. I had over three months to make this happen. I scheduled conferences to attend. I was looking at a lot of different websites with entrepreneurs and magazines like Inc. and Fast Company to get my guests lined up.
SMART – “R” – Relevant
Was this a relevant goal? Absolutely. I wanted to be a podcaster so this was a very relevant goal.
SMART – “T” Time Bound
I gave myself just a little over three months so I had that structure in place. Looking back, it was crazy. It was almost exactly 100 days when I set the goal up never knowing that three years later I would be creating the Freedom Journal which teaches how to accomplish a goal in 100 days.
Amy: But I’ve got it.
John: Before we move into what you did, let me quickly share what most people do. They look at SMART goals:
SMART – “S” – Specific
I want to launch a podcast. That is actually not that specific. It is a vague goal that people say and it sounds good. But it never happens.
SMART – “M” – Measurable
Is that measurable? No, you didn’t give yourself any kind of measurement to go on.
SMART – “A” – Attainable
How are you going to know if it’s attainable if you haven’t done S or M because you don’t even know those numbers.
SMART – “R” – Relevant
Do you actually want to be a podcaster? Do you know you want to? Is that relevant? I kind of want to use a great side example here, Amy, because you are so big and good with emails. If someone wants to build their email list should they be focusing solely on Periscope right now?
I love Periscope and think it’s amazing. But it’s not the best email-building tool out there. For instance, Webinars That Convert is a much better way to build an email list than to focus on Periscope. So if your goal is to grow your email list and you are focusing on Periscope, that’s not a relevant goal. You need to adjust that and know that at the beginning before you start.
SMART – “T” Time Bound
Nope, there is nothing time bound on that at all. I didn’t give myself any time parameters. Of course I will fail. Like Parkinson’s Law says, tasks expand to the time allotted. I haven’t allotted any time so that task is never going to get completed or is going to expand to infinity.
That was an example of what I did and why I successfully launched on September 22. The second example is what most people do that I see that struggle with setting goals. Now it’s Amy Porterfield’s time.
Amy: You’ve got to walk me through it though.
John: We are going to do this step by step by step. A great example that I really think is going to be perfect for you is something you just crushed out of this atmosphere, Webinars That Convert. You just killed it. It was an amazing launch. It was really a school, a tutelage in how to do a launch.
You obviously started with a goal. Let’s go through that SMART goal to show your listeners and your audience how you did this in a really smart and effective way. What was your specific goal with Webinars that Convert?
Amy: Tell me if this is a little bit too much. The goal was to create a program from A to Z of how people can do a whole webinar system inside their business and put it together in 30 days. That was the goal around the content. Then we also had a goal in terms of revenue. Can you have both of those when you are setting up something specific or do you just focus on one?
John: Absolutely. If you can have both, all the better. When you are getting specific, the more specific you can get the better. That’s why I shared a date, the amount of interviews, I wanted to get really, really specific on that goal. When having both of those goals, which was key for you, you probably want to have two simultaneous SMART goals running next to each other; one for the first part, and then a second one for the revenue, which is critical.
I love that. The specificity is critical. And now we can move into the Measurable part of it. What were you measuring?
Amy: The first thing I was measuring was the content creation. I had to measure in terms of how fast we were getting it done. We gave ourselves two months to create the program and to create the launch around it. I have a small team so while I was creating the actual content they were working on the marketing piece of it, which is really nice, and I could just interject when needed.
The measurable part, every single week I had to have a module created. There are five modules created, so in five weeks we had all five modules created. That was one of the big measurable pieces.
John: That’s a huge measurable piece because you can track that progress. You can check every single week to see what is working and what’s not. You know if you need to pivot or adjust, so that’s critical.
The third part is “A” which is attainable. I will step in here and say that Amy has created a team around her. Because of that she has some pretty attainable goals that might sound crazy and large to us but are super attainable for her because of that team. Do you want to take that for a second, Amy?
Amy: Yes. This was a big one because in order for me to have launched this on time, not only did I have to create the content but my team needed to take it and convert it and get it inside the member’s area, get the transcripts done, the cheat sheets done, all of that. I felt I really had to make sure I was giving my team enough time to do their work with whatever I was putting in front of them as well.
I wanted to get this done faster but then I knew that was insane. My team would go crazy and I felt we were really moving up to the deadline quickly anyway. So I needed to make sure we all had enough time. Is that what you mean by attainable? It is actually something we could get done?
John: Exactly. If you had looked at it and said you were creating a SMART goal and “A” is the attainable part of it and Trivinia stepped in and said, “I know our team and capabilities. This is way too much in too short of a time,” it is critical to know that from the beginning so that you can adjust back and say you need ten weeks, not five.
You identified five weeks, five modules, this attainable, let’s make this happen. You are setting yourself up for success in that manner.
The “R” is relevant. From an outsider’s perspective, I’ve known you for a while. I’ve been watching your business for a while and you have always done webinars so well. So, for me, Amy’s audience loves her and loves what she does, they love how she does it; of course it makes every sense in the world for her to create a webinar product to teach her audience, who wants to model her, how she does webinars so effectively.
To me, it made so much sense as far as relevance for your brand. You’ve actually talked about this on a recent episode, potentially going into courses, etc. So it seems relevant to me from the outsider’s perspective. What was it like on the inside?
Amy: You know, this was my most favorite program to create because it was so relevant in terms of knowing it well. I absolutely loved creating the content, and I knew I had gotten questions about webinars every single day from my audience so I knew it was going to be super relevant to them. I love that “R” is part of this SMART goal setting because the more relevant the more you will enjoy it and, I think, the easier the process.
If you don’t nail the relevance part of it, I feel there is some disconnect and you won’t totally get in the flow. Whereas, I feel I was able to get into the flow of it because I was very confident this was the topic I should be focusing on.
John: It was such an easy connection for your audience. You’ve been talking about emails for so long and the power of it. There are few ways that are better for building your email list and connecting with your audience than webinars. They do all of those things and so much more. They kind of feed off each other and that is a beautiful cooperation I just love.
Moving into Time bound. You have alluded to this a little bit in the specific part of it, but you gave yourself a really time specific manner that you were going to accomplish this in. That’s critical because if you don’t, again, you are going back to Parkinson’s Law. These tasks, the idea, the goal will just expand to infinity and beyond. Talk a little bit about your time boundness.
Amy: We knew we wanted to start launching live webinars about the webinar course in early September. We gave ourselves two months to work on this. There was no moving that date. Everything was scheduled around it so we knew we had to meet that date. I will say I got a little bit nervous. I probably should have given myself a little bit more time but this is where a really good team comes into play.
I communicated to my assistant, Trivinia, that I was nervous. I didn’t want to rush the content because it had to be good. I am that creative soul that if I feel rushed or under too much pressure I can’t even be creative. They knew I needed my space.
Because we had the time-bound goal, we knew when we were going to launch, my team rallied around me and asked where I needed space, where I needed to be able to be creative, what could they take off my plate and move with. They asked what we could not do if I felt too crunched for time. We were going to meet the date; but, maybe we needed to tweak things.
The date really played a huge part of successfully launching this program.
John: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time bound…Amy had it all. I know you don’t publish income reports, Amy, but you are still pretty open with numbers. We can all do the math; if you have 1,000+ members in a $1,000+ program and $170,000 in upsells. Let’s just say seven figures all around.
Amy: My first seven-figure launch! I will say that. It was really cool. This is the crazy part. The revenue goal was actually $250,00. I am a little bit guilty of not making huge revenue goals so I have a business partner that pushes me to do bigger goals. But in my heart of hearts, I thought, “$250,000 is what we want.”
Devin, my partner, was on the same page and then after our first webinar we had already hit that goal and we were like, “Whoa, wait a second!” I have been in business since 2010 and have never had a million-dollar launch. We’ve come really close in certain parts but this was the first time we had hit it and then some.
I will say that’s not all money collected. We did a 12-pay for the first time and I am excited about that because 1) It made it really easy for people to sign up to the program, and 2) We now have revenue coming in every single month and that wasn’t really how my business was created. It was really too focused on the launches. Now it’s more of a consistent revenue model and that’s really cool. I like to say that because it’s not like I’m rolling around in cash over here. It’s a thing that will kind of play out through 2016.
John: You will soon be rolling around in cash. The actual phrase is “invoice total” and that’s a real thing. When you have an invoiced total you have invoiced people who have signed up for 12 months at $99 and the invoice total is $1,200. You then obviously collect on that over the next 12 months and that’s a great MRR (monthly recurring revenue) for your business.
All of these things obviously show you why Amy was successful in the Webinars That Convert launch and I think it is a good time, Amy, to kick back into the Freedom Journal, specifically, what we talked about with those ten-day micro goals, to kind of slam this home.
Amy: Yeah, talk about that because I’ve got few more questions for you even after that. So tell me about those micro goals.
John: Awesome. I love it. As Amy mentioned a little while ago, after you set that SMART goal you start with a sprint. For me, again, 100 days is a great time frame but we just can’t have an open-ended 100 days. You have to break it up into bite-sized manageable parts within that.
I set up the Freedom Journal very specifically. It will guide you every step of the way. There are 100 days. You wake up everyday and start by saying, “In 99 days I will…” and you restate your goal; “In 98 days I will…” and it goes through for 100 days. I didn’t just want it to be in that manner.
The first thing you do is a ten-day sprint. You say, “This is the mini micro goal I will accomplish at the end of these ten days,” and you break it up into ten ten-day micro goals that obviously add up to 100. You start with the first ten-day sprint and get to the end by doing the ten days. At the end of that you say, “Okay, let’s do the sprint recap.”
You see what worked within that sprint and what didn’t. Then, of course, you set the second ten-day sprint to get you from Days 11-20 and so on and so forth. Another thing I added in that I really like and I’m getting a lot of great feedback from the beta users are called quarterly reviews.
Amy: I like that.
John: Every 25 days, on Day 25, Day 50, and Day 75 we do an actual in-depth review of the previous 25 days. I guide you into what went right, what went wrong, where were the roadblocks and where were the struggles, obstacles, and challenges within all of this so that the next 25 days can be a little bit better.
They are very different than the sprint and the sprint recaps because those are all about the micro goals. The 25 days is just the overall pulse. This is a quarterly review about where we are at either the 25, 50, or 75% mark. Once you get to the end, on the 100th day, you will have accomplished your goal by following this method. It’s truly impossible not to.
I had a beta tester come back and actually say, “John, I was really trying to disprove this and I just couldn’t. If I was actually honest and followed the steps the goal is just achieved.” That’s just how it is because of the sprints and micro goals that keep you on track and the quarterly reviews that keep your finger on the pulse and all of these different things.
This has been my heart and soul for 2015 and now that we are into 2016 I am just so excited to be able to share it with the world, literally. I have been so focused on business and entrepreneurship and I am going to continue to do so in the future, but I do love that this Freedom Journal can be a gift to somebody that maybe wants to run a marathon or do something completely non-business focused but can use this tool in a great way.
Amy: I love the idea of making this a gift as well. And that kind of leads me into the next question. You have a Kickstarter campaign. I want you to talk about it, when it starts, how people can buy this. Give me the details.
John: The Kickstarter campaign launched January 4, 2016. It is a 33-day campaign. Everyday for 33 days I’m bringing on a great past guest of EOFire. There have been over 1,200 so those 33 are pretty special and I am honored to say Amy agreed to be one of those 33.
Amy: I am so excited. It’s going to be fun.
John: For her episode it will be fun, for sure. These will be quick episodes on EOFire for those 33 days focusing on goals and setting smart goals and accomplishing goals to kind of educate Fire Nation, my audience, and, of course, anybody who wants to listen, about the power of setting and accomplishing goals in a SMART manner.
I am really excited for those 33 days to kick off 2016, for sure. It’s all taking place on Kickstarter. I am doing this because I am taking cues from people like Eric Reese and Seth Godin who have recently done similar things with their books.
I just loved how they were able to do great reward levels and packages so it wasn’t just that you could go buy a book or a couple of books at my Amazon store, that will be available in February and beyond, for sure. But, for this very special 33-day campaign I am having 35 different reward levels on Kickstarter. That is so exciting.
One of the rewards is a level that 20 people, and only 20 people, can claim. After they set and accomplish their goal in 100 days I am going to bring them on EOFire and am going to talk about them setting and accomplishing their goal.
Amy: That is so fun!
John: Right! I am doing super fun things like this for all of the levels and all of the rewards. It’s going to be so cool. The video on that page is actually epic. Our mutual friend, Caleb Wojcik, created this masterpiece. We spent lot of time doing this. If you want to check a little bit about Southern California and its beauty and what the Freedom Journal is all about, this video that Caleb created is gorgeous.
The actual location of the Freedom Journal Kickstarter campaign, so that you can check it out, is thefreedomjournal.com. That will send you right to the Kickstarter campaign and you will be off to the races. A component I really do want to add, Amy, before we dive off into other things, because this is really important to me, is proceeds from the Freedom Journal are going to be going to Pencils of Promise.
We will be using that to build schools in developing countries. A lot of people know Pat Flynn did this in 2015 and did a great video about this. We actually did the same thing, just myself and Kate. We donated $25,000 in 2015 to build a school through Pencils of Promise.
I’m good friends with Adam Braun. I was with him at a conference that we both spoke at in Las Vegas and we were talking. I said I really wanted to make the Freedom Journal significant. Financial goals really weren’t there for me for this. That’s with Podcasters’ Paradise and sponsors for my podcast. That’s where I really bring in the revenue for my business.
I wanted to know how I could make the Freedom Journal awesome, not only for people that invest in it and have it in their hands, but also to let them know they are doing something amazing. Proceeds from the Freedom Journal will be going to building schools in Third World countries and developing countries through Pencils of Promise. We are just so excited about that partnership.
Pencils of Promise is stepping up and they are a full partner on this venture and that is so exciting. It is a great feel-good story to start 2016. Again, you will have the Freedom Journal in your hand to accomplish your goal and you will be making a difference around the world.
Amy: I love this. I am so proud of you for creating this. I know this was a labor of love and the fact that you’re not even doing it for revenue. How cool is that, that you are giving back with the proceeds! I am so excited.
By the time this airs, you have just kicked off. We are right in the beginning so make sure you check out thefreedomjournal.com and get involved in the whole excitement around it. I think these are great gifts for somebody to start out their new year.
I have two questions for you. The first is: Have you already gotten the book and started using it? I have the book in front of me so I can kind of start today.
John: You could definitely start today. I am actually on Day 37 right now. My goal…
Amy: I was going to ask if you would share it.
John: I would absolutely share my goal. They have a thing and the name is actually escaping me, but it is basically the body-fat tank. It drives around San Diego. It is an old ice cream truck that they converted into an actual tank that measures your body fat.
Amy: This is very funny that it’s an ice cream truck.
John: It’s an old ice cream truck and sometimes they put on the music. They park it in a school parking lot and you can meet them there. You pay $35 and go into a dunk tank. It is the most accurate way to measure your body fat.
I did that two months ago and was at 14.1. That is okay, it’s good, kind of average for somebody my age, male, etc. My goal is to get to 11 percent. Again, that won’t be that crazy. I’ll still have to meet my bones, for sure. But that is just my goal. So I am using the Freedom Journal to track that and make every single step of the way to make sure I am following that and to check in and to get down to that point so that 60 days from now, when I have my next date with the dunk tank, I will hopefully be at my 11% goal.
I will actually say, because of the Freedom Journal, I will be.
Amy: I love that. I was thinking I have been on a health journey over the last 60 days and have been struggling a little bit. I see some of my old ways come up right and question what I am going to do. Last night I literally laid in bed wondering what I would do about it because I don’t want to revert back to my old ways but I feel them creeping in.
I woke up this morning and began prepping for this interview and thought, “Duh, Amy, this is so perfect.” I am going to make a commitment to you that I will start today. I know we are recording this a month or so in advance, but I will start it today and I’ll keep you updated on my next 100 days and I will get really specific and will make a SMART goal around health, fitness, weight loss, and all that good stuff.
I don’t publicly talk about that because, quite honestly, that’s sometimes embarrassing to me. It is a personal thing. I’m sensitive about it. But I think this is what I need. I love that you are one of my close friends that I can talk to it about and say, “I used your tool and look what I did.”
I’m going to do it.
John: I love that Amy. I’m picturing you thinking about that last night. The Freedom Journal has a day where you start off. The days are on the left-hand side. It is very structured and very focused. You really know what your goals are throughout that day.
But then it has a night side on the right-hand side. Part of that night is reflection. One of the questions is, “What are you struggling with?” You would have written down some of these struggles and there is a huge difference to think about your struggles and let them float out there in the mind. But then to actually write them down and actually go through and see that it is something you are really struggling with by getting it down on paper puts so much power in that. It is a game changer.
We have heard about journaling and scribing for a long time from Hal Elrod and the Miracle Morning and all of these other great areas. It is just true. We can think it is “woo-woo” stuff or not. It simply works. If you really want something to work then this is what it’s all about, actually getting it down on paper.
There is another angle that I think is really interesting that I hadn’t even thought of until I was holding the Freedom Journal in my hand. This never came up during the 12 months of my creation of this but I received it and, for the first time, the word “legacy” popped into my mind. I was thinking that if I really sat down and did the Freedom Journal on a powerful goal, maybe not the one about my health journey right now, maybe it is the next one or the next one, but my grandfather passed away at 47 years old. I never got to meet him.
I have heard stories from my father and I get it. I know him a little bit through those stories. But imagine the value of being able to hold in my hand a Freedom Journal that he had created at 35 years old and read 100 days of his life; his hopes, his dreams, his successes, his failures. That is priceless.
Amy: That kind of just gave me chills. That’s amazing stuff. I love it. That’s a whole different way to look at it. What I love about this is that I’m not a journaler and it is just a habit that I never can get into. But then I look at this and 1) I love that it is so much about mindset because we know, as all of those successful entrepreneurs that you have interviewed, it’s 80% mindset, but also 2) You aren’t making me write tons and tons. There are a few lines each time in the morning and at night. That’s doable for me.
I love the idea of legacy. I love the idea of mindset and the fact that you’re not going to kill us over hours of writing or anything like that. We are busy, we’ve got things to do, and this is important and needs our focus and time. I think you’ve taken all of that into consideration as you have built one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever seen.
I am so proud of you and thank you so much for sharing all of this with us.
John: Amy, it’s a huge thank you from me to have you give me the time to come on and chat. It was really the best day I’ve had this week, so thank you.
Amy: That’s great. I’m not going to tell everyone, or maybe I am, that it’s Monday so we’re just getting started out and it’s very early in the morning. But I am honored to have you.
John: I thought that would be an inside joke but now everybody knows.
Amy: You’re pretty transparent so I’ve got to tell everyone. John, I so value our friendship. Thank you for being on the show. I really want to encourage all of you to get your copy and then get another copy for two reasons: 1) It’s paying it forward to someone who could really use it right now so I want you to think who else could really use this and who you could do this with. Get a buddy and both of you do it, but 2) Get them a copy because, let’s be honest, it’s for an amazing cause so we are only going to contribute to that even more and I think that will be really fun.
I’ll make sure I do it. I’ll keep you all updated on my 100 days and, again, John, thanks so much for being here.
John: Thanks, Amy.
Amy: There you have it. I hope you enjoyed my interview with John as much as I enjoy talking with him. It’s always a lot of fun. I want to encourage you to get your hands on the Freedom Journal. Again, thefreedomjournal.com. All of the details will be waiting for you. I think this is something that could really be a game changer in how you plan out the New Year and beyond.
Good luck in all you do. Again, Happy New Year! I wish you nothing but amazing success and I cannot wait to connect with you again later this week when we will be releasing another episode. I will see you in just a few days. Bye for now.
