[Intro Music]
VO: Thank you for joining us for EntrepreneurOnFire’s Weekend Jam Session with your host, John Lee Dumas. Prepare to ignite!
John Lee Dumas: Alright! So we’re kicking off our second Question and Answer day. It’s a bonus that I’m throwing out there to Fire Nation. If you want to join in on the fun and submit a question, go to EOFire.com and join Fire Nation. Then when I reach out to my email subscribers for that next bonus Question and Answer round, you’ll get the email and you’ll send in a question.
So let’s move on to our first question of the day which – and forgive me for the pronunciation if I don’t get this right – but I believe it is [Yago Chameleon]. His company is Imperial Bartenders. His question is “As an entrepreneur, how do you solve this issue with staffing? I have a mobile bartending company very similar to a catering company, and I’ve been burnt badly by staff that I’ve hired. Is there a system for choosing great team members?”
Man, [Yago], if there was only an answer to this question that would lead to the golden goose, then wow, things would be just a lot better. This is an issue that plagues every company, every business, every organization at every single level. There’s no easy answer. One thing you can do is be very stringent during your screening process. Really dig deep into their past. Call their referrals. Really talk to their referrals. That’s going to give you an insight into the type of person that you’re dealing with. Then also, see what their past jobs were. Have they shown passion in the kind of job that they’re about to take with you? That is so important. Take your time, do the screening process right, and really give them some input into the company. Make them feel a part of the team. People really want to feel like they are part of making a difference and adding value. So congratulate them when they do good, let them know when they’re doing wrong, show them how they’re adding value to the company, how they’re changing things for the better, or for the worse, and see how they take that. See if they cringe or if they really embrace it. So there’s no golden pathway to hiring the right people. All you can do is your best with the screening process, and then go forward from there.
Good character really does go a long way. I remember a Macy’s ad not that long ago that really resonated with me – “We don’t train our people to be nice. We hire nice people.” So think about that, use that when you’re going forward in your process, and best of luck.
The next question is by Dean Patino of Baseball Classics, which is www.playbaseballclassics.com. Dean writes in, “Hi, John. You’re awesome! What is the surefire way to have a website with a successful recurring monthly subscription revenue model? Thanks, John. You’re an inspiration. Kind regards, Dean.”
Dean, well first, thank you for the kind words. That is the point of EntrepreneurOnFire, is really to provide inspiration. I really appreciate the fact that you think I’m awesome. I’m really not that cool, but thank you anyway. So there is so much out there right now about creating the successful recurring monthly subscription revenue model. Honestly, I think it’s a great model. I am creating it here at EntrepreneurOnFire.com. I am creating an elite mastermind community where people can come and have weekly webinars. There will be forums. There’s going to be resources and special interviews and giveaways, and we’re just going to have a lot of fun because that’s what I want to create, is a mastermind where we’re all together – like-minded, passionate entrepreneurs – that we support each other in our endeavors and we have a good time doing it. So I think you’re on the right path. Obviously, you are into baseball, and there’s a lot of people out there who are into baseball. So go out there, find people who are like-minded and start making it happen.
So let’s get specific now. What are some resources that you can actually use and go to right now to start this journey? Well, what do I do? I use OptimizePress as my theme on my WordPress site, and then I use WishList, which is a WordPress plugin that allows you to create this membership monthly recurring revenue that you’re talking about. There are some great tutorials out there. One that I really recommend, David Risley over at Blog Marketing Academy has a couple of great tutorials about WishList and about OptimizePress. I would recommend those tutorials. They are completely free. Also, Stu McLaren is the guy that runs WishList. He is a phenomenal person. I met him last weekend at a conference and he’s just the nicest guy in the world. So just google WishList. Go to their website. The WishList Insider, I believe it’s called. They have tutorials there about how to set up that plugin, which is again going to allow you to seamlessly run this recurring revenue subscription program off of your WordPress website.
Now things to have in this membership, they vary. It depends on your industry. For me, there’s going to be a forum where there’s going to be some passionate discussions going on about the latest entrepreneurial ventures. There’s going to be weekly webinars where we’re talking about our businesses and the struggles that we’re having. There’s going to be a resource page for those special resources that are so key for entrepreneurs. There’s going to be special interviews with entrepreneurs that are coming on and sharing their stories. There’s going to be a special newsletter.
So I’m kind of giving you some ideas about how I’m setting up my program “Ignite” at ignitemastermind.com, but you need to go out there and find what you think is going to be best for you. So for baseball, you might want to have merchandise or tutorials on the best way to hit or pitch or fantasy baseball talk. Everybody loves fantasy sports. You’re the industry expert. You definitely know what baseball fans would like most. Best of luck, Dean. You’re definitely going down the right path.
Our next question is from Matt what baseball fans would like most. Best of luck, Dean. You’re definitely going down the right path.
Our next question is from Matt – and I hope that I’m pronouncing your last name right – Hotze from CommonBlox.com. “Hey, John. Thank you for offering these bonus podcasts. Here’s my question. I’m curious about your podcasting. What resources do you use for the music, voiceover, intro, recording and delivering the podcast? One of your guests mentioned this was an underused medium, and I think you are taking advantage of that as well. I’m just curious about how you’re putting it all together. Good luck and keep podcasting. I love hearing your stuff every day, and now on the weekends.”
Matt, thank you for your kind words. I really appreciate it. Let me launch into this for you. First of all, you are right. This is such an underused medium and it’s such a great medium. Right now, EntrepreneurOnFire is getting over 3,000 downloads every single day, more than 100,000 downloads every single month, and it’s just growing every single day as more and more people are hearing about it and subscribing to it. iTunes is an incredibly underused search venue. Before, people didn’t really realize how much YouTube was a search engine. Now, everybody knows YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world behind Google, and Google owns YouTube, interestingly enough.
So you’re curious about podcasting. What resources do I use for the music? I’ll start with that. I go to musicbakery.com so I can get royalty-free music. I’d say it’s about $35 if you want to purchase a 15 to 30 second royalty-free music clip, and it’s high quality music so it’s great stuff. Musicbakery.com. As far as voiceover, I went to Voices.com and I just submitted at test. It’s kind of like if anybody has ever used 99designs or things along those lines for design. Voices.com is a similar thing where you will submit your music and the actual script that you want them to use, and then people will compete and you can choose the one you like the best. So that cost about $100 and I had about 15 or 20 people actually enter my contest. So I was able to choose from that. That was very valuable to me because I really wanted to get the right voice for EntrepreneurOnFire. However, if you want to do it on a budget – and I’ll tell you, it’s very cool to do it on a budget these days because of a website called “Fiverr.com.” Actually, that’s how I went about getting the intro and outro music to the bonus podcast. I wanted to change it up a little bit, test it out for you guys, see how it worked, and you tell me. I went with some funky music. I hope you guys enjoyed the jazz aspect of it. I just went to Fiverr, and for $5 I had the girl record the intro and the outro that I liked. I actually had a couple done because it was only $5, so I felt like I could have a couple of takes and I’d be fine with that. So that’s a very affordable way to go about it.
So as far as recording, this is my studio. I have a mic with a boom on it, which is just like this arm so I can move it around. I do have a pop filter. I also have what’s called a PreSonus Fire Studio Project, which is basically like an amplifier and limiter gate in one. That runs into my computer. Then I just use Adobe Audition to record, and I record directly into Adobe Audition. From there, I can burn my recording into an MP3 and submit it to iTunes. It’s really that simple.
Well, Matt, I hope I answered your question in enough detail without boring people that didn’t want to hear the answer to that. So I’m going to move on to the next one. This is by Gael Breton. Gael asked, “Here’s my question. What’s the single best business book you’d recommend for entrepreneurship and why? How did it influence your journey?”
Well, Gael, this is a pretty solid question, and I’ll tell you why. I get one book recommendation every single day, as you know from listening to EntrepreneurOnFire, so there are so many great books thrown my way. Mari Smith just recommended the book “The Compound Effect” by Daniel Hardy. You can go to EntrepreneurOnFire/23. Find that book. As soon as the interview was over, I went. I downloaded that book. I read it, and I’ll tell you, it has changed my outlook on life. A lot of people say that about a lot of books. Of all the books that have been recommended, this is the only one I’m going to say that about. It’s all about how you look at things and it really changes your outlook on what you do day-to-day, month-to-month, year-to-year. I truly love this book. It influenced me because it made me realize small things do matter in life. One of the references in the book is that when’s the last time you’ve been bit by an elephant? Okay. When’s the last time you’ve been bit by a mosquito? It’s the little things in life that can get us. So I highly recommend that book. It’s influenced me already in my journey. It will continue to do so. Go out there, check it out. EntrepreneurOnFire.com/23. So Gael from HigherClick.com, let me know how you like it.
The next question is from Jordan Labelle. Jordan said, “John, this bonus Question and Answer session is an awesome idea. I can’t seem to get enough of the show in the first place. My biggest question after listening to so many Internet entrepreneurs is what is the best way to get started with a website? I am fairly computer savvy, but seem to have a terrible amount of trouble when it comes to building a website. Is there somewhere that will teach you everything you need to know about getting started, or should I just keep doing lots of reading from different sources and try putting it together?
Well, Jordan, I do offer free WordPress video tutorials. There’s 20 of them. They are between 5 to 10 minutes each. So if you go to EntrepreneurOnFire.com/wordpress, you will be able to have access to those tutorials and they give you an incredible insight into building a WordPress website. You need to be subscribed to the list to have the password for those. So if you’re not subscribed to the list, go to EOFire.com, subscribe to the email list, and you’ll get the password immediately emailed to you, and then you can check out all those WordPress video tutorials.
Other than that, I would check out the website yourwebsiteengineer.com by Dustin who’s actually got a question later on in the show. He knows a ton about websites and about WordPress and putting all that together. That’s his expertise. I highly recommend checking him out and checking out my WordPress tutorials. Both sites have a lot of free stuff. Don’t forget about my resources page at EntrepreneurOnFire.com/resources. I have all of what I found to be the best resources on the Internet. Again, you need to decide how much time you want to invest personally and how much time you want to spend on the core of your business.
Now for me, I know that I need to be a WordPress expert on a lot of levels so I could do everything I need to do as far as posting and editing a page and adding pictures and videos. That’s what my WordPress video tutorials are for that will help you for that. When it comes to really designing a great site, unless you’re an expert, you’re not going to be able to do it without a ton of time and effort. So weigh the options and make your decision.
My next question is from David who works at TrainSignal.com. He writes, “John, I am always interested in productivity tools and efficiency tools. For me, developing a system of daily productivity is one of my greatest challenges. Perhaps your guests can offer advice on that.”
Well, they can because they’re quite productive people. Some insights that I will give you right now on this is there’s a book, “Getting Things Done.” It’s a great book. It goes into detail about devising systems for all types of people. So whether you are a Type A, B, C, D, E, F, G personality, you should really be able to find a system that works for you within this book. A couple of tools that I really love, I use WorkFlowy every single day. That is my to do list. Once you check out WorkFlowy and you see how it is collapsible and how you can search in it and organize things, it is free, it is super effective. I love it. Then another tool I’ll definitely have to say is I have a team of three fulltime virtual assistants and myself. So that’s four people. I use Asana.com. I find it extremely valuable. I use it every single day with my team. It helps us track what each other are doing and how we’ve completed tasks. Again, it’s a free tool, but it’s incredible.
So there’s a couple of productivity and efficiency tools for you, as well as a book that will really get you on your way, David. I will definitely prod some more information out of future entrepreneurs in this area now that I know you’re interested in it. Keep listening. Thanks a lot.
Okay. So this last question does come from Dustin Hartzler, who I had mentioned earlier, who is yourwebsiteengineer.com. Just an extremely knowledgeable guy, an extremely nice guy, a pleasure to work with in every way, shape and form. He’s going to just give you a ton of value. He has no overhead. He works for himself out of his home, but he knows everything you need to know about WordPress. He has a great podcast, he has great video tutorials. Go check him out. “John, I would love to know how you’re creating income from interviewing guests each week.”
Wow! Well, Dustin, that’s a great question. It’s kind of personal, but I like it, and I am completely transparent so I’ll answer that right now. EntrepreneurOnFire.com is generating zero income as we speak. This is a passion of mine that I started about six months ago. I built the platform. I launched September 21st. Since that time, all of my focus, time and energy has gone into creating as high a quality podcast as possible for Fire Nation, interviewing so many entrepreneurs every week and doing everything it takes to running that. I have not monetized anything up to this point.
However, I do want to make this a viable business and I do believe the maxim from MJ DeMarco who wrote the Millionaire Fastlane, “If you want to make millions, you need to help millions,” and EntrepreneurOnFire’s number one goal is to help millions of people. That’s quite an aggressive goal. I definitely know it is. But when you do think of the fact that I’m getting over 100,000 downloads every single month already, and that number is growing, that will be well over a million downloads in the first year. We are on our way to helping millions of people, and it’s going to be Fire Nation that will show me the way to take the EntrepreneurOnFire business.
So I am very fortunate I am in a position where I can sit here, create my passion, EntrepreneurOnFire, and give you, Fire Nation listeners, the best podcast possible and let the financial aspect take care of itself down the road. So Dustin, that’s the honest answer to your question. I look forward to the next time we chat.
So Fire Nation, that is going to do it for our first Weekend Question and Answer Session. I really hope you guys enjoyed it. I look forward to reaching out again. I’m not sure if it’s going to be an every weekend thing or not yet. I’m going to have to wait for some feedback on that. But keep a lookout in your inbox. You may be seeing an email coming through, asking once again, “Fire Nation, come at me. What do you have for questions?” And I’ll do my best, as I did today, as I did yesterday, to offer you the best answers that I have. Thank you so much again for joining me. Fire Nation, you’re the best. You guys rock. Keep that fire alive, and prepare to ignite.
[Extro music]
VO: Thank you for joining us at EntrepreneurOnFire.com. If you would like to submit your own question, go to EOFire.com, subscribe to Fire Nation, and prepare to ignite.
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