Richie Norton: What? You know it. Hey.

John Lee Dumas: Richie is the bestselling author of The Power of Starting Something Stupid. He's done a TEDx talk and has a course coming out with yours truly called Guest Mastery. He's an international business development consultant, serial entrepreneur, and CEO/cofounder of Prouduct, helping entrepreneurs turn their ideas into profitable products through sourcing in China.

Richie, take a minute, fill in some gaps from that intro, and give us a little glimpse of your personal life.

Richie Norton: Oh, man, I don't even know what to say, other than I love you, JLD. You're the man. That's all anyone needs to know is how much I love you.

John Lee Dumas: It's mutual, brother.

Richie Norton: Right. And, yeah, I live in Hawaii. I live right across the street from V-Land, Velzyland, which is right by Sunset Beach. I have three boys, beautiful wife. There's more to my story than that, but honestly at the end of the day, I just want to be the champion of other people's successes, bring people together, and so I make stuff up to help people be successful, and that's just kind of what I do.

John Lee Dumas: Well, you do that, and I feel like there's a lot of serendipity in this world because when I came up with the idea for the Freedom Journal a couple years ago, I was struggling because I tried doing the Alibaba route, and I was just so overwhelmed, and I just knew that I was talking to the middleman of the middleman of the middleman of the middleman.

I was like, this is such a disaster, so I honestly almost gave up. I really did. I was actually in the process of giving up the idea for the Freedom Journal when I interviewed you for my show, so we got to meet. We connected obviously. I gave you a little brief − a little synopsis about what I was thinking about doing, and you said, "Dude, let's jump on a call next week," which we did.

You told me all about your idea for Prouduct, which was just at that time kind of coming together. And I said, "That is exactly what I need." Since then, we've come together. We've done the Freedom Journal, which became the sixth most funded publishing campaign of all time on Kickstarter, all because of Prouduct.

You sourced the manufacturing plant. You made the production happen, the shipping happen, the distribution happen. You just did everything, and it's so − I get people talking to me all the time, like, "This is such a gorgeous product, John." And I'm like, "Yes, thanks to Richie. He found the place to make this happen and for a price that allows us to actually do that." And so it was such an amazing process, and now we've sold over 16,000 to date.

Richie Norton: Wow.

John Lee Dumas: We just ordered another 30,000 through you, which are coming to the warehouses as we speak. And now we've ordered 30,000 Mastery Journals. I mean, first and foremost, Richie, that's a lot of paper, am I right?

Richie Norton: Dude, it's like − so when I would walk in the factory and look at all this paper, I felt bad for the trees, but then I felt good for the people who were gonna get these.

John Lee Dumas: Well, I do have something to note on that. This is like a legit − it was a Planet Money episode − is that you can't feel bad for the trees, only because there's tree farms that are only there in life just for this purpose. Otherwise, they literally wouldn't be there. So we would have less trees in this world if it wasn't for people having books.

Richie Norton: Oh, good.

John Lee Dumas: It's true. Hey, it's a Planet Money episode −

Richie Norton: Good point.

John Lee Dumas: − so if it's on Planet Money −

Richie Norton: Good point.

John Lee Dumas: − it must be true.

Richie Norton: It's true, it's true. I didn't actually didn't feel that bad for the trees. They're okay, they're okay, I promise. I just wanted to say that. No, but it was just piles and piles and piles of these beautiful pages. I could have swam in them for miles. It would have filled more than an Olympic-sized pool, you know.

And what people don't realize is when you say how many you've made and how many you've sold, that's one thing for someone who publishes through traditional publishers, like, whatever. But you did this all on your own, through your own network, which also means you keep all the money.

John Lee Dumas: Yeah.

Richie Norton: And I don't think people even understand, they don't, what that means. It's huge. It's huge. Anyways, you're killing it. I love it.

John Lee Dumas: Well, I'm having a great time. We are just loving the Facebook group within the Freedom Journal, to see people come and accomplish these big goals. Every single person that I've actually, well, that I have already interviewed but that, Fire Nation, you'll be hearing over the next few weeks are people that have invested in the Freedom Journal, have accomplished their No. 1 goal.

And the most fascinating thing that, Richie, I didn't even know when I booked them to be interviewed, but I just found this out during my interviews was they're all on their second or third Freedom Journal.

Richie Norton: Whoa.

John Lee Dumas: To me, that's the biggest sign of success is that −

Richie Norton: That's true.

John Lee Dumas: − every single one of these people is going back and buying a second one and a third one. And I'm just like, wow, this is such a testament to the value of the Freedom Journal that people are literally getting done with their 100-day goal, and they're onto the next one. And that's why I'm pretty fired up for the Mastery Journal.

So, on that kind of note, I kind of want to hear your perception of this because your life's fascinating, Richie. I mean, I follow you on Instagram. Your Instagram stories −

Richie Norton: Sorry, I'm out of control.

John Lee Dumas: − let's just say you're out of control. I was trying to find a politically correct word −

Richie Norton: It's out of control.

John Lee Dumas: − like seven flashed through my mind, and so I passed on all of them. You're out of control.

Richie Norton: Out of control.

John Lee Dumas: You post so often. But it's great because I actually, you know, I love keeping up with you like that.

Richie Norton: Yeah.

John Lee Dumas: You travel the world. You're running this company. You're speaking at TEDx stages. You're launching a course with me, by the way, called Guest Mastery, Fire Nation. It's just there's so much stuff you have going on. You are super productive. So kind of talk for a minute to me about how do you define that word? What does productivity mean to you?

Richie Norton: I don't know, but I do know that your 100-day idea is perfect. So if they go back to one of my old shows where I talk about my son passing away, he lived 76 days. So I actually do mine − I try to do them in 76-day periods. So I figure that's how long he lived, and you can do anything in that time period, right, 100 days, about three months more or less. Three months, are you kidding me? You can know if something's gonna succeed or fail in that time or you can pivot.

So I, unlike most people, I know that systems help me and I know that processes help me, but I hate them. I hate calendars. I hate it all because I never know when something cool's gonna happen, and I wanna go do that instead.

John Lee Dumas: You don't wanna be stuck. You don't want to be in this rigid system −

Richie Norton: Exactly.

John Lee Dumas: − that doesn't allow you flexibility.

Richie Norton: It's the worst thing ever and the best thing ever because instead of trying to change the way my brain works about being stuck in a box, I've just decided there is no box. It's not about thinking out of the box. There just isn't one. And so productivity to me means just results, results.

Now, a lot of people are like, "Hey, if I push paper all day long for eight hours, I'm productive." And I'm like, "Did you get the results you wanted pushing paper all day for eight hours?" "No, I felt like I got nothing done." "All right. Well, that sucks. You weren't productive."

And so if someone spends their eight-hour workday, 9:00 to 5:00, whatever, and they stretch out their work for eight hours because they have eight hours, which is called, by the way, Parkinson's Law −

John Lee Dumas: Yeah.

Richie Norton: − work expands the amount of time that you're allotted − then I think you're wasting your time because I know that if someone put a gun to your head, which I hope they don't, you could have got it done in an hour or two. I know. I know you could have.

And so that's what I do. I batch my work, and then I use what I call expert sourcing where if I don't know what the heck I'm doing, I find someone who does, and then I use a third pillar that I call − this is gonna be a book, by the way. I don't even know why I'm telling you these secrets. The third one I call project stacking, so the idea is kill two birds with one stone, but I don't want to kill any birds. I want them to live.

But I make one project actually be multifaceted, multidimensional where one thing actually affects multiple things at the same time. And in that way, I leverage my time because time is all we really have.

And I know you love acronyms, and so my acronym for TIME is Today is My Everything. So if I can get stuff done today through project stacking, expert sourcing, and batching my work, I'm productive.

John Lee Dumas: Richie, right now there are people that are listening to this, and they are flipping loving it because they're saying, "John, I'm not like you. I'm not this disciplined, regimented person who just likes his systems and automations. I'm not like you. I'm more like Richie," and they're able to resonate with you like that because, again, Fire Nation, everybody's different.

There's tens of hundreds of thousands of people that are listening to this show now and over the course of the upcoming years, and you're not all gonna be like me, and you're not all gonna be like Richie. You're gonna be maybe more like me, some more like Richie, some more like other − someone else.

But what's awesome and what I love about you, Richie, is that there's just people that are like, "Oh, my God, I'm finally hearing somebody describe why I just don't fit into this box because there is no box."

Richie Norton: Yeah.

John Lee Dumas: And I love that you brought up Parkinson's Law, Fire Nation, such a key phrase. Tasks will expand to the time allotted. It is so true. And, Richie, this is why I know that you'll love the Mastery Journal on some levels −

Richie Norton: Yes, yes.

John Lee Dumas: − because I implemented the Pomodoro Technique, so you have four sessions where you give yourself a time block. For me, it's 42 minutes on, 18 minutes off. For Richie, who knows? For someone else, it might be 25 on, 10 off. You find your thing, by the way.

But you get more stuff done in that one time block than you used to get done all day, period. And you don't even have to have a gun held to your head. It's just a reality. You're going to get more done within that time block because it's pure focus session. For me, that 42 minutes is pure gold, and I do four of those every single day. So that Pomodoro Technique is critical.

Now, Richie, you just seem to really be able to have a lot of thoughts and funnel them in some great way. How do you do that? How do you choose?

Richie Norton: So how do I choose is interesting, but let me answer the first one, how do I funnel them? Some people hide their ideas and their thoughts because they're afraid someone's gonna steal them. And I'm like, dude, screw that.

If I don't tell people, first of all, I'm never gonna do it. Second of all, if they steal it, good for them. I have other ideas. And I can just say, hey, I had the idea first. They stole it. And that's kind of cool too. And then the other reason I tell people is because I need an accountability partner.

John Lee Dumas: Yeah.

Richie Norton: So you have been on the receiving end of my horrible ideas that I just email you every once in a while, right? You're like, dude, this guy's insane. But if I hadn't − I knew I was taking a risk in telling you, not that you would steal them, but that I might be bothering you −

John Lee Dumas: Right.

Richie Norton: − which I probably do −

John Lee Dumas: Never.

Richie Norton: − but I send them to you because in some way or other, I think they fit with what you're doing. Now, they may not be the right timeline or the right project right now, but they fit.

And I do that with other people too. I think of an idea. I call it mission matching. If I can make the stuff I wanna do match with someone else's mission, then it works. So people say no to stuff because it doesn't match their mission or it's bad timing. So if I can find something that matches their mission, meaning project stacking, my thing also helps their thing simultaneously, it's a win-win.

Stephen Covey is my mentor guy before he passed away. Now, Stephen M.R. Covey, his son, same thing. It's all about trust. So if I can match my mission with your mission, and it's good timing, done. So the way I funnel ideas is I just tell people. I tell people. And that keeps me on my toes, and I have accountability partners.

The next step though is a timeline. If there's not a timeline to get it done, it just never really gets done, just keeps going. And so that's okay for me. Sometimes they don't have to get done yet because it's not urgent. But at some point in time, if my publisher hadn't have said, "Give this to me by this date," I never would have got it done, right?

Same with you and your books. You're like, "Hey, we need it shipped by this date." And so we work backwards.

John Lee Dumas: Yeah.

Richie Norton: And we work backwards. So the way I choose is twofold. One, do I wanna do it, and is it cool? Because it's not always about money. It's just about creating cool stuff.

And then the second thing is: Do I need money immediately for this or later? If I need money immediately for this, that moves up closer than the other things because a lot of our dreams actually live in what Covey would call important but not urgent. That's where our dreams live.

And so we focus all our time on these urgent things that are either important or not important, but we're putting out fires all day. Well, you're starting fires, but still on fire. I'm burning right now. But if we can sort of prioritize those things that are important but not urgent, that's where your dreams live. So you've got to pull those things to the forefront by self-imposing deadlines or dreamlines, as I think Tim Ferris would call them.

John Lee Dumas: Wow. So mission matching, I actually love that phrase. And for me, Fire Nation, if you can match somebody with their mission, you've just created a friendship for life.

Richie Norton: Yeah.

John Lee Dumas: You've just created this relationship that's going to endure. And so when Richie does this with people, it's so meaningful. And that's why, you know, don't hold your ideas. Don't hide your ideas. Share them. Share them with the world.

Now, Richie, I do have a question though, and this is an honest question. I mean, we're friends, but we don't talk all the time, so I don't get to ask you all the questions that I have about you. You always do have these great ideas, and you seem to always be doing courses and videos and working with other people with Prouducts.

When do you find the time to do this thinking? Because I see you again with your kids. You're traveling. To me, there's always something going on in your world. Do you have any kind of system that you have or structure that you have or even lack thereof is a structure in and of itself where you find the time to just think and to read and to come up with these ideas?

Richie Norton: I'm gonna tell you honest answers, okay?

John Lee Dumas: Yeah.

Richie Norton: You're gonna hate me for these honest answers. I am a praying person, but I don't go and sit and meditate for hours. I'm not doing yoga, doing that upside-down doggie pose or whatever. I just don't do that, okay? My wife does that.

But when I go and experience life and do new things, I just think about it, like, in the moment. I go, "Oh, that's cool. I wonder how that could help someone else." That's just what I do. .

So a lot of my ideas will come to me in the water when I'm surfing because that's a good time to just kind of be alone, even though there might be other people around.

John Lee Dumas: Yeah, surfing's huge for sure.

Richie Norton: Yeah, I'm just kind of in the ocean. I'm with nature. My book, The Power of Starting Something Stupid, was written in the ocean. It literally − even the title of the book came to me in the ocean.

So being out helps me a lot. If I sit down in front of a computer and say, "I'm going to just think and make stuff up," it's just too much work, and I get distracted, and I get on Facebook and email. I just do.

But if I'm outside, and I'm experiencing life − so when I do this product batching thing, and we use that whole − what's it called? − is it Pareto's Law or whatever, like, 80 percent of your − 20 percent of your results come from 80 percent of your efforts −

John Lee Dumas: Yes.

Richie Norton: − or something like that. So I focus on that, which actually frees me up to have a lot of time, a lot of time. If I don’t fill my time up with stuff, I just fill it up with going and having fun. And so while I'm having fun, I'll take that 20 percent, and I'll experience something, and I go, "Oh, this could be applied here."

The real secret though is this: I, like you on EOFire, but I'm not doing it on a podcast − maybe one day − I let people call me and ask me questions, a lot of times for free, not always, but a lot of times. And then I started doing these courses because I didn't have enough time.

But when I do one-on-one consults with people, and I'm talking not just like − sometimes it's just everyday people that have ideas, but sometimes it's big-time, top-of-their-industry people, and they tell me all the things they're doing, all the problems they're having, what works, what doesn't work, and I go, "Oh," and my mind just goes to another world. I'm like, "That's how it works in your industry?"

So then when I talk to someone like you or someone else, of course I wouldn't disclose secrets of anyone, of anyone's − what they're doing, but I can take best practices from other industries and apply them to a new industry.

And when I do that, there's no competition, there's no weirdness, but people are like, "Whoa. How'd you think of that?" And I'm like, "I don't know. It's working in that guy's place. Why wouldn't it work in yours too? Everybody's a person, whether they're buying music or books or listening to podcasts, they're still doing it all. It might as well work in your industry too."

John Lee Dumas: So, for me, Richie, this just kind of leads to getting outside of the box, and so many people spend their lives in the box. You're like, "Okay. What are other podcasters doing, John, in the podcasting world?" And so now we're all doing the same thing, so none of it works because we're all doing the exact same thing.

Richie Norton: Oh, yeah, yeah.

John Lee Dumas: So what I want you to do, Richie, is actually come up with a specific example that you've experienced with this. You've had a conversation with somebody, really just learned some great ideas from this person.

Richie Norton: Okay.

John Lee Dumas: You applied it to a different industry in a different way. And when we come back, Fire Nation, after we thank our sponsors, Richie's gonna drive the firebomb.

Richie, we are back, brother, and I've given you some time to think about it obviously because I'm a good friend. But what's some conversation you've had with somebody that is doing great things in one industry, and then you've taken that idea, you've applied it to somebody in another industry, and they've just gone on and crushed it? What's an example?

Richie Norton: Well, you didn't give me a lot of time to think about it.

John Lee Dumas: I gave you the whole sponsorship break.

Richie Norton: Oh, yeah, I forgot, I forgot. Okay. So can I give you a real-time one?

John Lee Dumas: Yes.

Richie Norton: I haven't seen the results yet. Let me just give you a real-time one. So I met this rapper named Sirah. She is legit. I met her in Moldova, which is the poorest country in Europe, and I was just there last week, and we were both giving TEDx talks. And I honestly just fell in love with her, not in a romantic way − I have a wife; I got kids − her story, and you have to have her on. She's like the ultimate entrepreneur.

I won't tell her whole story, but long story short and part of her TEDx talk, so none of this is secret, but she grew up homeless as a little girl. She saw family and friends die, like, drug stuff, gun stuff, kidnapped, raped, like the worst things you can imagine happening to a human.

And she lives in America. She's little, little meaning she's a small person, and she's this little white girl. The reason that's relevant is because she became a rapper, and she would go to these rap things, and she would get booed off the stage every week.

And then − you have to talk to her − I'm like, "Did you have friends there while you're doing this?" She's like, "No, I had no friends." And I said, "What?" When she said that, I was like, she is legit. She wanted − this is the whole mastery thing.

She wanted to change her life so bad and get out of this horrible situation that she was willing to go somewhere to another culture where she didn't fit, get booed off the stage, where they felt bad enough for her, and they finally taught her how to rap. Now, you fast-forward to today, she's a Grammy-award-winning artist.

John Lee Dumas: What?

Richie Norton: Yes, and she's doing stuff with Skrillex, who is huge. She's on Demi Lovato videos. She's going to Africa and doing humanitarian work. She helps kids get off drugs all over the world. She just wants to do cool stuff. She's killing it.

So I talked to her. I'm like, "Who the frig are you?" You know what I mean? Like, "Who are you?" And so now, we talk all the time, and I'm applying all these ideas of internet marketing, courses and podcasts and all these things that you and I talk about, which is not a part of the music world at all −

John Lee Dumas: Right.

Richie Norton: − which I can't get into details yet, but we are going to apply this, and it's going to kill it. I know it will.

John Lee Dumas: So, Richie, do you ever get to the point though where you're just like, "Wow, the more people that I talk to and the more people that I'm helping, I feel like I'm spreading myself out, and I have my family and travel," I mean, how do you balance it all?

Richie Norton: Projects. It's all a project to me. A project has a beginning and an end. It can fail or it can succeed. I can pivot or not. And so because I do have these systems with these different businesses that I have, like Prouduct, I have a team that helps me. Online courses, most of it's automated, other than the times I'm doing the one-on-one stuff.

And so that allows me to choose projects and people that I would love to work with. And so I don't see it like, "Oh, I'm starting another thing. I'm so busy." I don't think of it like, "I'm starting a new business, and this is gonna be my entire life." No, it's one project. I'm a store, and inside my store, I sell tortillas, and I also sell salad dressing. It's just there.

And so people come to me with their ideas, and if I can help them, and I can also leverage the expertise of other people, I just am a big organizer, like Google or Amazon. You just organize the resources and then watch the magic happen.

John Lee Dumas: So where do you struggle? We've been talking about why you're so awesome, how you're so awesome, like, all the things that you do, right?

Richie Norton: So awesome.

John Lee Dumas: You're just awesome.

Richie Norton: Yes.

John Lee Dumas: I mean, you know it, I know it, Fire Nation knows it because it's true. It's really, really true. But still, where do you struggle? Where are areas that you come up short?

Richie Norton: I'm on my phone way too much because I barely use a laptop, if ever. Desktops, what is a desktop? That doesn't even exist to me. It's all my cell phone. And so because my cell phone is on my person always, even though I am doing a lot of stuff with my family, I'm also with my business because it's on my phone, right?

John Lee Dumas: Right.

Richie Norton: It's just − it's there. That's a massive struggle. So I need to just break away from my addiction because when I do have that great idea in the middle of the wilderness, in the rainforest or something, I have to text it to myself or email it to myself so I don't forget. And so there is that battle. There is that struggle.

John Lee Dumas: Well, there is a really interesting study, by the way. This is super relevant.

Richie Norton: Yeah.

John Lee Dumas: If you have a conversation with your iPhone in the room, that conversation loses meaning, and it loses focus. There was a big study that was done, and nothing was different. The two people were sitting on a couch looking at each other having a conversation in one scenario, and the other scenario, the same exact thing except there is an iPhone just right on the table. And guess what? The iPhone wasn't even theirs. So it wasn't like they could receive a call or go check it.

Richie Norton: Whoa, yeah, creepy.

John Lee Dumas: Just the fact that they knew it was there was enough to change the energy in the room.

Richie Norton: That's interesting. So I do struggle with that. At the same time, on a positive note, I don't think work/life balance is necessarily a real thing. If I worked 12 hours a day and played 12 hours a day, even though that's balanced literally, it seems imbalanced to me, right? And so I think that sometimes in batching, it's like that − what is it? − ebb and flow. It's like sometimes you're busy on one thing; sometimes you're more engaged in another.

John Lee Dumas: Yeah.

Richie Norton: And that's okay. What if your whole life was one big balance? Like a seesaw or a teeter-totter, it kind of goes up and down. But at the end of the day, if you're sad because your life is unbalanced, so to speak, because that was the word you used, then you shift it. You shift it. As long as you can name it to tame it, as long as you can recognize it, then you can change.

So the fact that I'm recognizing that my cell phone, that I'm abusing my cell-phone privileges means I can then do what you did and do the self-mastery thing and say 100 days. The first ten days, I'm not gonna go for a hardcore detox, but I'm gonna try and find maybe systems and processes that I can start detoxing, right, because detoxing hurts, right? You go cold − I mean, there's ways to do it.

But what if that was part of what I did in the self-mastery journal, was how to lead a more self-gratifying life, not just for me, for my family, so they don't feel like my cell phone's more important than them? I mean, that's something I should do inside your journal, right?

John Lee Dumas: Absolutely. Your wife will thank me for sure.

Richie Norton: There you go, there you go.

John Lee Dumas: And, Richie, one thing that I kind of wanna talk about as close down here is Prouduct −

Richie Norton: Yeah.

John Lee Dumas: − because one of the amazing things that came out of the Freedom Journal was the fact that I was just very vocal that the reason why the Freedom Journal exists in the beautiful physical form that it does and not just like some PDF that would have frankly just really had much meaning, just because it just wouldn't have had the same vibe, you know, a lot of people were reaching out and contacting you and saying, "Well, I want you to do for me what you did with John."

And in fact, one of my upcoming guests, Mihoko, she's coming up in a week or two, Fire Nation, she used the Freedom Journal to launch her product, called the Carlin, which is a great product to help women with their hair, long story short. You'll have to check it out. But she used Richie and Prouducts to make it happen.

And so you're doing some great things bringing physical products to life in what was before a very scary and very tough-to-navigate world. So kind of end here now, just take a couple minutes because I know we're coming up to the end of our allotted time here. Tell us about Prouduct and tell us about why this is such an opportunity that we live in right now because it's exciting.

Richie Norton: Okay. I'm gonna say this fast. So my whole life, I've been looking for ways to help other people. I lived in Brazil, saw people in poverty, wanted to help them get out. And I saw that they didn't have the resources, but they did have the talents.

So, long story short, I started working with this wonderful woman from Mongolia who had the same kind of situation, and we started a cashmere company in Mongolia. I didn't know what I was doing, but I figured it out by asking other people.

So that's got me into the international business world. I did get an MBA, international business, all that kind of stuff, but honestly didn't change my life. It was just kind of a cool thing to do.

So fast-forward to today. When I would talk to entrepreneurs, and they'd tell me they wanted to do not just some kind of digital marketing, digital product; they wanted to do a physical product, I was like, "I know that world. I can help you with that." So we put together a team, and now we source products for people in China or anywhere really, but China just seems to be the most relevant for most people.

So when I talked to you back in the day and we started doing this, we'd never done − I mean, I'm an author; I've written books and published books, but I'd never made a book. And so that's the thing is people were like, "Well, what can you do?" And I'm like, "Well, the question is, what can't we do?" because if China makes it, we can make it.

John Lee Dumas: Yeah.

Richie Norton: And it's about relationships. We go to China in person. We meet with them. We make sure they're not doing weird stuff. And we get the best prices because we have people that speak Chinese, and we're there in person. There's not always middlemen.

We are a middleman. Let's be real about that, but our goal is to get it for less than you could on your own, thinking you were not the middleman − you know what I mean − and the highest quality possible, which is hard. You know how hard it is, John, even when we're there in person, how hard it is to get a quality product.

John Lee Dumas: Yeah, so hard.

Richie Norton: We're relentless. We have to get it right. It's hard. So since that's happened and you took a chance on us, and it's worked out, and you've been so generous with your praise, which is why I love you so much, yes, you've made us hundreds of thousands of dollars, John. It's insane.

People listen to it, they hear what you're doing, they hear that we're the people behind you because you're not this magician that makes magic tricks and doesn't tell people. You're showing people what you do −

John Lee Dumas: Everything.

Richie Norton: − which is why I love you. You're so transparent, even down to the penny of how much money −

John Lee Dumas: Right.

Richie Norton: − you make or not, right, which is a lot, right? It's insane. It's insane. So anyone out there who wants to make a physical product, look, yeah, you could probably figure it out on your own, but why would you? It's a nightmare.

John Lee Dumas: Nightmare. And I'm actually gonna say you probably can't figure it out on your own because I really tried, Richie, I really tried.

Richie Norton: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's hard, it's hard. And if you wanna sell a widget, why do you wanna become an expert in having somebody in another country who's another language make it for you? Just sell it.

John Lee Dumas: Let me even break in here for a second because, guys, you might even question like, "Well, I don't have the big audience that John has or anything like that. How am I gonna do this?" My friends, just like I was able to leverage iTunes, there's this amazing thing − you know, for my podcast to kind of grow and be successful, there's this amazing thing called Amazon out there, and literally −

Richie Norton: Yeah.

John Lee Dumas: − I'm telling you right now, I'm looking at − you say that I'm transparent with my numbers. I'm gonna be super transparent right now. My friends, I have my books shipped to Amazon. I use Amazon FBA, which is Fulfillment by Amazon. And guess what happens? The books arrive at Amazon, Amazon stores them and packages them up, and then when people order them on Amazon, Amazon ships them.

They handle any returns that happen, which are very few, but when they do happen, I'm glad that Amazon's handling that. They handle email communications. They do everything. It's amazing. And I get to leverage the unbelievable Amazon machine.

So when people get on Amazon, and they Google "journal," the Freedom Journal is one of the higher-ranked journals right now −

Richie Norton: Wow.

John Lee Dumas: − because we have over 200 five-star reviews.

Richie Norton: Yes.

John Lee Dumas: And I'm looking at my numbers right now. This is just Amazon alone, so this is − by the way, most people that know me and my brands buy from TheFreedomJournal.com, and we do anywhere between $600.00 to $1,500.00 a day on that site for the Freedom Journal, and we use Shopify for that. So that's my audience. Amazon's not my audience. These are people that are finding me that don't know about me −

Richie Norton: Yeah.

John Lee Dumas: − that now are getting to know about me because of this.

Richie Norton: Yeah.

John Lee Dumas: And I'm looking today, so far − this is today. We're only halfway through the day right now. I've sold 20 Freedom Journals on Amazon −

Richie Norton: What?

John Lee Dumas: − for $780.00.

Richie Norton: Oh, my gosh.

John Lee Dumas: In the last seven days −

Richie Norton: What?

John Lee Dumas: − I've sold 257, which is $10,023.00.

Richie Norton: Are you kidding me?

John Lee Dumas: I'm looking at my stats right now.

Richie Norton: What?

John Lee Dumas: In the last −

Richie Norton: What?

John Lee Dumas: − 15 days, I've sold 409 for $15,951.00.

Richie Norton: What?

John Lee Dumas: In the last 30 days, it's 622 total for $24,258.00. And, my friends, that's Amazon.

Richie Norton: Oh, my gosh.

John Lee Dumas: Thank you, Amazon.

Richie Norton: Yo, dude, dude, dude, dude, so what's crazy about that is if anyone knows you, they're gonna buy it through your site −

John Lee Dumas: Right.

Richie Norton: − right, TheFreedomJournal.com or whatever the site is, right, something like that. Did I get it right? Is it TheFreedomJournal.com?

John Lee Dumas: TheFreedomJournal. You nailed it.

Richie Norton: So these are people who don't know you −

John Lee Dumas: Mm-hmm.

Richie Norton: − which means, as far as they're concerned, you didn't exist.

John Lee Dumas: Right.

Richie Norton: You have zero audience −

John Lee Dumas: Zero.

Richie Norton: − according to them.

John Lee Dumas: Yeah.

Richie Norton: That's − what? What's insane.

John Lee Dumas: And I'm seeing, dude, I'm seeing my website visits rise. I'm seeing my podcast listeners rise because now this whole new audience is saying −

Richie Norton: Yes.

John Lee Dumas: − "Well, let me check out the author of this," and they're Googling −

Richie Norton: Yes.

John Lee Dumas: − John Lee Dumas and they're going to EOFire.com. They're listening to the podcast.

Richie Norton: Yes, yes.

John Lee Dumas: So, Richie, we do unfortunately gotta close this down, my friend, because −

Richie Norton: No, let's keep going.

John Lee Dumas: I wanna keep going. I really do, I really do.

Richie Norton: This is too good.

John Lee Dumas: It's so good. I'm gonna have you back on again obviously because we're gonna be talking in depth in the upcoming months about Guest Mastery, which is a course that myself and Richie are putting together about how you can, you know, you don't have to launch a podcast and be a host and run all this stuff. You don't have to do that.

You can just be like Richie and be amazing, come and be a guest on some of the bigger shows, and then start to just give value and do amazing things through that way as well. So keep your eyes out for Guest Mastery. We'll talk more about that soon.

And, Richie, just take 30 seconds, say farewell and give a shout-out. Give some calls to action for my audience, and nothing to do with me, by the way, because I'll do a little outro at the end −

Richie Norton: Okay.

John Lee Dumas: − but all for you and what you have going on.

Richie Norton: Okay. So I'm gonna break the rules. John is the man. I love this guy. He's gonna kill it. Do whatever this guy says, okay?

And then if you want Prouduct to help you, it's just Prouduct.com, products you're proud of, P-R-O-U-D-U-C-T dot com, Proudcut.com.

If you wanna learn more about me, Google my name, Richie Norton stupid, stupid Richie, you'll find me. RichieNorton.com, I've got a free guide to help you Turn Your Stupid Idea into Your Smart Reality in 76 days. It's a challenge. It's insane. And then we've got PodcastGuestMastery.com/ebook for a free e-book. Is that cool, three calls to action? That's gonna be horrible. That's horrible.

John Lee Dumas: I love them all. And guess what? They're all gonna be in the show notes, and if you just go to EOFire.com, you type Richie in the search bar, every episode that he's been on, which has been multiple − I think this is either four or five for you, Richie, of EOFire − they'll all be there.

Go back and listen to the first time he was on, the story. I still get emails, Richie, about how your worst moment/worst day − excuse me, I'm even getting choked up now − about how it chokes people up, and it really just touches people in a very powerful way. So go check that out, Fire Nation, and do all the things that Richie's saying to do, as far as what he has for you, and we'll catch you on the flipside.

Richie Norton: Later.