John Lee Dumas

Host of Entrepreneurs on Fire, a daily interview podcast running since 2012 with over 4,000 episodes, 150 million-plus total listens, and around 2 million listens a month. Former US Army officer, then law school and corporate finance, before starting the podcast. Based in Puerto Rico, which he discusses openly as a tax-driven choice (a flat 4% rate versus the roughly 51% he paid in California).

Best known in this episode for radical financial transparency: a monthly income report, published for 121 consecutive months at the time of recording, itemizing every dollar earned and spent down to individual SaaS subscriptions, independently verified on-air each month by his own accountant and lawyer. Targets a 90% net profit margin and shares months where the business made "big tactical errors" alongside successful ones. Argues this transparency builds trust and drives revenue rather than costing it, consistent with research on cost-transparency and social selling cues (see Harvard Cost-Transparency Purchase-Intent Studies, Social Selling Cues Product View-Sales Count Study).

Discussed in

• Episode 166 — 166-should-i-share-all-my-secrets

Related

• Harvard Cost-Transparency Purchase-Intent Studies
• Social Selling Cues Product View-Sales Count Study
• Pulling Back the Curtain Company Tour Study
• Justin Kan Twitch Transparency Case
• Input Bias (Effort Heuristic)