Hello again;
This week on The What’s Your Excuse? Show I’m honored to bring you a conversation with one of the Rockstrs of the podcasting world Mr. John Lee Dumas.
Now, if you are at all involved in the world of podcasting, you are going to know who John Lee, or JLD, is.
And before I share our interview I’m going to tell you how this came about.
Because I believe the story behind the interview has as much value if not more so than the interview itself.
And John Lee and I actually talk about this during the interview.
And for those of you who know me and have been following me for a while this won’t be much of a surprise.
John Lee made an appearance on my friend Alex Sanfilippo’s podcast Creating A Brand.
He would mention this during the interview he did on my podcast The What’s Your Excuse? Show.
In fact he explained how the interview with John Lee came about and that he had just recorded it prior to sitting down with me to be interviewed for my podcast.
He went on to say that he was more excited by being on my show and had looked forward to our talk more than his interview of John Lee.
Well, I’ll admit to a little bit of pride, so I shared this on twitter and tagged JLD on the tweet.
JLD was a good sport and liked my post.
When Alex’s interview of John Lee went live I shared that post on twitter tagging JLD on it.
I wanted to help my friend Alex, and yes sharing content for someone is a great way to come to their attention.
And who couldn’t use another friend online especially one with such a high name recognition.
John Lee replied to my share with thanks.
Eventually, I wrote the tweet that resulted in this interview.
I said something to the effect that I would invite him on my show except I didn’t think he had ever suffered any adversity.
Since my show is about how we become who we are today, I told him I didn’t think he would be a good fit.
Now, think about this for a minute.
I know you all love me, but basically I’m a relatively unknown podcaster telling the great John Lee Dumas he wasn’t a good fit for my show.
I’m not saying that’s how he saw this. I don’t want to stick my foot in my mouth again with John Lee. I’m only saying he could have seen it that way.
He replied back asking if any of my guests ever had to go to war and lose four of their best friends in combat.
To which I replied no and probably very few of my audience members have either.
I apologized for making assumtions about him and his story.
I concluded by saying that I was sorry but that he does come off as someone who has never struggled or suffered.
And that I would be happy to have him on my podcast.
He replied back with a link to his scheduling page.
And believe it or not friends I almost decided not to interview him for my show.
I clicked on the link to find that I was given a fifteen minute time slot. And this wasn’t for a pre-interview but for a full podcast interview of him.
My interviews generally run forty five minutes to an hour, and I am open about my struggles with anything brief or in a short form.
Thankfully, I followed some advice my dad used to give me when we were booking events. He would often advise to stall in hopes of a better event coming along.
I left the link in my twitter direct messages folder and went off to speak at PodFest Multimedia Expo in Orlando.
While there I spent some time with my friend Alex Sanfilippo. I even got to meet his awesome wife Alecia and have dinner with them.
I told him about what had happened online and about the offer of a fifteen minute interview with John Lee Dumas.
I told him I was probably going to say thanks but no thanks.
He let me know that John Lee doesn’t say yes to a lot of interview requests. He reminded me that he only got JLD on his show because they shared a table at PodFest the year before.
He also let me know that John Lee doesn’t give anyone more than fifteen minutes. And in fact JLD is famous for hanging up on anyone trying to get him to go longer.
Armbed with this information I came back home, clicked on the link, selected a date and time, and started preparing for the interview.
This one caused me to think a lot about myself, my abilities as a podcaster, and my place in the podcasting world.
I will admit to forgetting my favorite Star Wars quote from Yoda about there being no big or small there only is.
It took a lot of encouragement, reassurance, and a few good kicks in my ass to convince me that I am every bit as much a rockstar as John Lee Dumas is.
And when I did my research to learn more about his story I found he out he is a regular guy just like me and just like you.
He has struggled, and we talked about some of those.
We talked about his military service, his feelings when starting his podcast, and the belief that before he started down this road he was like many of you.
He felt like he had done everything right, was continuing to do all the right things, and he wasn’t hapy or successful in the way he thought he would be.
The interview is only thirteen minutes long. There is no singing, and very little intro or outro.
But I feel good about the answers I was able to get out of John Lee.
I think that you will see him as a regular guy who has struggled and in some areas he continues to struggle.
And I hope by watching or listening you will stop seeing him like I saw him as a podcasting super hero who rules the podcasting world, and who has never had a bad day in his life.
And that in fact hearing his origin story will make him even more of a role model.
You can look at him and his struggles and say if he can do it then what’s my excuse.
Now On To The Show
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:12 — 4.5MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | Email | TuneIn | RSS
I have to get to bed now. I have an appointment for another interview at 10:00 am. but I will finish this post and tell you what I learned from this experience.
Trust me it will show you things about me I didn’t know about myself until the famous podcaster agreed to come on my show.
Thanks and take care out there, Max