Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle

http://www.tropicalmba.com/laura/ Laura Roeder was one of our keynote speakers at DCBKK a few weeks ago and she really wowed the audience with her talk. Dan and Ian got a chance to sit down with her after the conference to talk about how she has been able to start Edgar, an extremely successful social media tool, with little to no experience in tech.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/speaking-at-a-conference/ Don't panic. We've got it covered with Dan and Ian's handy guide. It includes: how to handle nerves (yep), slide design, the pros and cons of bullet points and what to do if your Q+A session is greeted by a stunned silence (yep).

http://www.tropicalmba.com/productized/ Today we are going to be doing something really special. A new business is actually starting on this week's show. We've been having a lot of trouble with email marketing lately. We're on a very basic email marketing platform and we have kind of outgrown it. There are more robust email platforms out there, but a lot of them are really expensive and hard to operate. Eventually we discovered that Drip was the perfect platform for us, but we didn't want to commit the man hours to learning to use it. I reached out on Twitter to ask if anyone was interested in starting a SWaS business around the Drip platform. Jeff Pecaro was the man who answered the call. We invited Jeff on to the show this week to give our listeners an inside look on what it's really like to launch a Productized Service business.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/mailbagz/ A lot of our Podcast listeners write into us with questions. We've decided on this week's episode to play a round of TMBA Mailbag. Ian and I are going to take some time to answer a slew of questions from our listeners including whether we are planning on taking a break after selling our business, how selling your business can affect a marriage-model business partnership, plus a few more thoughts on what it takes to attract A Players to your business.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/aplayer/ This week we are talking about hiring. If you have a business that has less than 15 employees, every single employee has to be an A Player. You can't afford to have B and C level players working for you. This is specifically aimed at everyone out there who should be hiring, or has hired employees. This episode is full of 301 and 401 level material, and you absolutely need to pass this class if you are going to have a successful business. We'll be talking all about how to hire A players and how to purge B and C players from your business.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/underoptimization/ A few years ago, I was at a mastermind in the Philippines and the people that were involved were a pretty intense group. At that event one entrepreneur stood out that was a little bit different than the rest of us. For must of us, we are always in the hustle mindset and we will do anything that it takes to grow our business. Mark Brenwall is almost the polar opposite. Lifestyle is very important to Mark and he abides by a strong set of personal rules about what he will and won't do for his business. In the two and a half years since Mark has become an entrepreneur, he has built a business called Wod Nation that currently nets him $20,000 a month in profit, and he did it all without compromising his beliefs. I invited Mark onto the show this week to share both his inspiring story and his unique approach to business.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/sold/ This is an exciting episode for us. Bossman and I are pleased to announce that we have sold our product business. The sale process was over a year and a half long, and we are going to be telling some pretty interesting stories about what happened along the way. We'll also be talking about what we have learned from exiting a business that has been such a big part of our life since 2007. On this episode, we'll be sharing seven things we wish we would have known, that we hope other people will consider when selling their business.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/productlaunchlessons/ Today I posted our first ever public ticket offering to DCBKK. We've launched so many of these events now, and we've learned from a lot of our mistakes over the years. I wanted to take an episode to sort of walk through some of the lessons that we've learned in doing our product launches, and specifically doing event launches. I've invited Damian Thompson from SalesAbility.co on to the show to talk about the evolution of our DCBKK event. We are also going to be taking quite a bit of time to talk about what goes on at DCBKK, the types of people who come to the event, and what sets DCBKK apart from other conferences.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/packing/ Ian is on vacation this week in Greece, and I am getting ready to fly back to the United States. I was in the process of packing my bags, when I received a call from a listener named Josh who was curious about what kind of stuff we have been traveling with recently. I have written about my travel kit many times on the blog, so if you don't want to hear me talk about what I keep in my backpack, this might not be the episode for you. I do know that there are some of us out there who spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff. If you're like me and you want to know more, I'm gonna walk you through some of the things I'm packing tonight and why they are part of my travel kit.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/culture/ A lot of people have been saying that our recent episodes have been targeted towards beginners. This is because we're fascinated by how people use a business model to go from scratch to building revenue. We thought it would be appropriate to do a 300 level course for our 300th episode. Today we're going to talk about how to create a culture that allows you to manage a multi-million dollar business while you travel. Ian has managed to do this over the last year with just six hours of phone calls a week, and our business is still growing. We're going to be talking about how to build the kind of culture that holds everyone together, and keeps everyone productive, while you are living your rock and roll lifestyle.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/bcn/ One of the things that I've always loved about the Tropical MBA is that our listeners have found so many different ways to interact with our show. Today we're going to be talking about how to get out from behind your computer and connect with people in real life. I've invited Chris Reynolds and Alex McQuade on to the show this week to talk about just that. Alex is the Director of Operations for the Dynamite Circle, and was an integral part of our Barcelona event. Chris is the founder of The One Effect and has recently started kind of an entrepreneurial revolution in Barcelona. There are 22 entrepreneurs who have moved to Barcelona to live in apartments that Chris has set up. We'll be talking about some of the unique ways we have been able to interact with our listeners in the real world, sharing strategies for digital nomads who want to connect with people in real life, and listening to some firsthand testimonials from people who have been living in the DC Barcelona House.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/10trueclients/ A common misconception in business today is that you have to build an audience of hundreds or thousands of people in order to sell something successfully. The fact is, when you're getting started, you won't have an audience like that. We have talked over and over again about why we believe in starting with ten true clients. One of our longtime podcast listeners, Sophia Bera, has found great success doing just that. Sophia is the founder of GenYPlanning.com, where she provides affordable financial planning services for people in their 20's and 30's. This week we're talking with Sophia about how she has managed to replace her income in just over two years, why she didn't agree with some of the practices in the financial planning industry and how she was able to turn that into an opportunity.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/endofjobs/ This week longtime friend of the show Taylor Pearson drops by to talk about his new book, The End of Jobs. We don't typically invite guests on to the show to promote their books, but Taylor has had such a huge part in the growth of our product business. His new book also stemmed in part from some discussions that the two of us had after the Dynamite Circle Conference in Bangkok last October. On this week's episode, we're gonna talk all about why Taylor decided to write this book, the books that are defining this exciting location-independent movement, and why the jobs that were once considered the safest are now being called into question.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/greenbelly/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/greenbelly/ Podcast 31:36| Download | Stitcher | iTunes | Comment After taking a brief sabbatical, we return to the show this week with a very unique guest. Chris Cage ([email protected]) is an avid hiker, biker and outdoor enthusiast. Chris started Greenbelly in 2014 and has been creating high-calorie meal replacement bars ever since. He recently crowdfunded $20,000 on...

http://www.tropicalmba.com/tokyo/ This week on the show, I'm talking to Chris Kirkland from the Hobo CEO podcast. His show explores the philosophical side of the digital nomad movement. Chris is a veteran of the location independent scene, having founded his first location-independent business Artweb in 2005. One of Chris' more recent ventures is TokyoCheapo.com, a content-based business dedicated to educating travelers and expatriates on how to live in Japan on the cheap. We'll be discussing some of the common misconceptions about living in Japan and the benefits and challenges of managing a content-based business model.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/apprentice/ One of the most frustrating parts of the entrepreneurial life script is that when you first hear about it and understand the benefits, you probably aren't ready to start a business. You know the answer is starting a business, but you aren't quite sure how to get there yet. We have long been advocates for seeking out an apprenticeship, but it's not always that easy. How do you get an apprenticeship, where do you go when you find one and what happens after you get one? Over the last couple of years, Vincent Nguyen from GrowthNinja.com has gone through all of these stages himself. I've invited him on to the show to talk about his experiences as an apprentice at Empire Flippers and how he has managed to transition from being a successful apprentice into owning his own business.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/swas/ I recently came across an article on TechCrunch that caught my attention, all about the rise of "Do-It-For-Me" businesses. Big businesses have been doing "Do-It-For-Me" for decades, but small businesses remain a relatively unconquered frontier. This is essentially about selling time to entrepreneurs, and I don't know anyone who does that better than Mat Newton from The Web Agency Podcast. He recently started what he calls a SWaS, or "Software With a Service" business called Tourism Tiger. Mat is joining us this week to talk about what the SWaS business model is and how it has changed the way that he does business.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/art/ Is it possible to build a business and monetize your art? This is a question we get asked a lot. One of our listeners got in touch with us this week and challenged us to speak about how we would apply some of our entrepreneurial principles to a career in art or music. If you are an artist of any kind, this is the episode for you. We'll be talk about what we believe it means to be an artist, how to support your art through a job or business, and how you can leverage 1,000 true fans to build a career doing what you love.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/studentloandebt/ Last week I was on vacation in Southeast Asia with my family, and we are all huge Penn State fans. I spent some of my most formative years around State College in Pennsylvania. I was thrilled when one of who listeners named Brian, who teaches at Penn State, reached out to us and asked us to answer some questions for his students at the university. In this episode Ian and I lay out a three-part plan to become a location independent out of college, talk about how why you should be looking for an apprenticeship instead of a job, and finally answer one of the questions we get asked the most: why cat furniture?

http://www.tropicalmba.com/dropshippinglife/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/dropshippinglife/ Podcast 29:33 | Download | Stitcher | iTunes | Comment This week Dan is on vacation in Asia with his family, so I’ve invited Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel onto the show to talk about what it means to be a bootstrapper and the differences between a bootstrap business and funded business. We also share our thoughts about the...

http://www.tropicalmba.com/workwithus/ Today we are gonna do a Tropical MBA first, as we've decided to record a podcast about a new job listing. If you're interested in coming to work for our team, we encourage you to listen to this episode. We're also taking this opportunity to talk about team building and the back story of the Tropical MBA. The first blog post that we ever published on this website was a job offering. We're gonna talk about what inspired that and the position that we were in when we made that decision. We're also gonna debate the value of having team members in-person versus a location-independent team and whether or not it's a good idea to support your employee's side projects.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/bizquestions/ We've received a ton of great feedback from last week's Q&A session on relationships and lifestyle. This week we've decided to reach out to our listeners for questions pertaining to business. Ian and I are gonna be talking about everything from productized services to offshore business, management philosophies and our own personal outlooks on the future of our business.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/behindthescenes/ This episode is a pretty unique one. In this week's newsletter we reached out to our listeners and encouraged them to ask us just about anything that was on their minds. It turns out an overwhelming number of people wanted to know more about our lifestyles and what goes into the creation of the show. Ian and I are going to take you Behind the Scenes on this week's episode. We'll talk about the difficulties of having relationships on the road, what it's like to live as an expatriate, and we'll even answer a few gossip questions about what we do with our time.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/gimlet/ Ian, Taylor Pearson and myself can't stop listening to Alex Blumberg's new podcast called Startup. If you haven't heard it yet, stop reading this and go listen to it. If you listen to a lot of podcasts or radio at all, you've probably heard Alex's work on shows like This American Life and Planet Money. We decided we wanted to create an episode that would serve as a companion piece to this fantastic series. The three of us are talking about how the show inspired us, what we see as the ironies in the venture capital world, the distinctions between being and artist and an entrepreneur, and what this series represents in the podcasting world.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/meaning/ In a nice bit of serendipity, I was in Singapore last week and I ran into my friend John McIntyre. John is The Autoresponder Guy, but today he didn't want to talk about email marketing or autoresponders. We got to talking about what you do when you've gotten through those first few years of running a business and you've reached a certain level of comfort. How do you choose to live once you own your own time? We'll also talk about John's experience scaling in year three of a productized service business, and what you can get out of living in Chaing Mai.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/spain/ Not all of us came out of the womb wanting to start a business. Some of us were attracted to the personal agency and the freedom of being an entrepreneur. This week's guests all have a few things in common. They all had this similar dream of the freedom that comes from quitting their jobs and starting their own businesses, and all three of them have chosen Spain as their home for that journey this summer. Barcelona has recently become kind of a hotbed for the entrepreneurial community. I reached out to Chris Reynolds, Cristina Ansbjerg and Robert Brandl to get some insider info about what it's like to live in the city and why they have all fallen in love with it.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/wealthy/ This weekend Ian and I shared the room with 30 high-net worth individuals. We held our first ever wealth event for some of the most successful listeners of this podcast. It's not very often that you get to hang out with so many interesting and successful people in one weekend, so we've decided share some of the lessons that we learned from that event on this week's show. We'll be talking about how we got the idea for this event, why this is my favorite event I have ever attended, and the nine things that surprised us the most coming out of this conference.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/shopifyninjas/ A few weeks ago we did a show called "An Episode For Those Who Need a Business Idea". We got so much great feedback from that episode, and looking back at it, we realized it has become part of a series that we have developed about productized services. This episode is the natural progression of that series. The first person that I thought of when I wanted to continue that discussion was Tristan King from ShopifyNinjas.com. Tristan has a lot of thoughts on how you can build productized marketing services and scale them. He will also be sharing his view and advice for getting started from somebody in their third year of a productized services business, and a few of his business ideas that he believes could be winners for the TropicalMBA listeners looking to start a business.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/books/ I love books. I love to read and I know that many of you do too. This week we're going to have a simple, fun episode where we talk about our favorite books. I will be sharing five books that I think people might enjoy reading for inspiration or pleasure and our good friend Taylor Pearson will be sharing five timeless business books that he believes are worth reading more than once. If you are looking for new stuff to read, this is the episode for you.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/valetup/ In April 2013, Ian and I cut a deal with Jesse Lawler to found ValetUp.com. Nearly two years later we find ourselves on the other side of the looking glass wondering what went wrong. In today's episode, we're going to talk about what we learned from that experience, how we failed, and what we are going to do about it in the future. We're also going to hear from Jesse about his new project, PodcastPop, and how it is going to benefit podcasters who are looking to build a more organic connection with their audience.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/nofail/ Today's episode is all about facilitating high level masterminds, and nobody does it better than Taylor Pearson. It can be hard to figure out what it takes to succeed. Masterminds put you in a position to surround yourself with people who have common goals and will not allow you to fail. This is old school block-and-tackle business strategy. We're talking about what is important to consider when structuring a mastermind, success stories from the groups that Taylor has spearheaded and some of the most useful tools for organizing an effective mastermind group.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/businessideas/ Back when Ian and I were working a 9-to-5, we were dreaming up all kinds of ideas to start a business. Over the years, we've discovered what we like to call the Business Idea Paradox; When you need these ideas the most, they are the hardest to come by. Ian and I have decided to donate some of our business ideas that we don't have the time or resources to pursue. We've also reached out to our listeners who have donated some of their own business ideas for this episode and shared their thoughts about what kinds of businesses they would really like to see.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/family/ I'm in the beautiful South Philippines today and in this very location last year, I met today's guests: Paul and Becky Kortman. The Kortmans are a big family with a unique story. Paul runs his own digital marketing agency called Connex Social. Last year they sold their house and 90% of their belongings and decided to hit the road. They ended up taking 25 flights and visiting over 30 different locations. We're gonna talk about how location independence effects family, how it effects relationships and how it effects business. We'll also discuss how they rebounded from losing 90% of their revenue, and what the experience was like traveling with a six person family around the world.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/7daystartup/ Do you think it is possible to launch a scale-able start-up in just one week's time with no money invested? That might sound too good to be true, but Dan Norris has not only articulated an approach to this in his book, "The 7 Day Startup", he has also used it to grow his own business, WPcurve to close to $25K in monthly recurring revenue it his first year, and nearly 50K in monthly recurring revenue now. On this week's episode, I've invited him on to the show to share his unique insight about being an author, running a services business and how the story of his seven day startup has managed to become so successful.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/investing/ Bossman and I have taken the last few weeks off to recharge and prepare for our upcoming Singapore Event. We're back from our short break and ringing in the new year by discussing a question that Marc Cuban asked recently: What should the average investor do with $50,000? We'll dissect some of the ideas he proposed about financial investments, talk about how the location-independent entrepreneur can put them to good use, and explain exactly what makes our upcoming gathering of entrepreneurs such a unique sharing environment.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/builtajob/ With the help of our friend Taylor Pearson from TaylorPearson.me, we are continuing our 5 part series. The first episode was about making that first $1,000 of income. This episode is all about the next phase of a business, where you are starting to make a living, but you're trying to figure out how to scale that and turn it into a real asset. We'll talk about how we got out of our jobs and built a business, how long we were living broke for and the fundamental difference between building yourself a job and a business.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/remoteceo/ We are talking about what it means to be a remote CEO. This episode is essentially going to be story time with Ian. We discuss what it is like to leave the office for extended periods of time, and some essential mindset stuff that goes into being a successful remote CEO. We also talk about how our portable business has been able to grow five times year over year with Bossman and I living away from the office, and the dissect the steps that it takes to step away from your business and let it work for you.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/espressoenglish/ This week I've invited Shayna from EspressoEnglish.net to share how she was able to build a successful info product business that allows her to live anywhere in the world with just a laptop and $1,500 in capital. We're gonna talk about how Shayna drives hundreds of thousands of visitors to her site every month, how she turns those visitors into leads and customers, how she produces her info products and how she values them. We'll also talk quite a bit about lifestyle and her thoughts on the future of the digital nomad movement.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/patrick/ Patrick McKenzie from Kalzumeus.com has been one of my favorite bloggers for over half of a decade. Patrick has a storied history of writing long-form pieces about the experiences of starting bootstrap software businesses, and is an expert at optimizing for non-cash currencies. In this week's episode we dig deep into Patrick's business philosophy, including how he has been able to build a powerhouse blog that is followed by some of the most influential people in the industry. We also talk about his expertise around conversion optimization and email marketing, how not to suck at giving conference speeches, and Patrick's experience as a long-term expat in Japan.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/returntoapprentice/ Our old friend and former team member Taylor Pearson from TaylorPearson.me has come by this week to help us have a broad, round-table conversation about team building. We talk about the ways that Ian and I have done it, and Taylor shares some insider insight from having been on our team. We also answer a question from a young listener about whether he should be learning a skill set like SEO or diving headfirst into his own business.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/focus/ TropicalMBA is a podcast dedicated to the growing movement of location independent entrepreneurs. Every week, location independent entrepreneurs all over the world will leave us questions and comments in our voicemail. This week, we are answering a whole bunch of those voicemails, including questions about why you should be starting or joining a mastermind group, some of the best things about being an expatriate and why branding is really about building relationships with your clients.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/dcbkk2014/ Bossman and I are in Tokyo this week following our annual DC BKK Conference in Thailand. We are gonna be recapping how the event went, and reminiscing about some of our favorite speakers. We're also going to be talking about what we've learned about throwing events, what we are planning to do in the future and sharing our advice for people that are looking to get the most out of all these upcoming conferences.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/hustle/ In the aftermath of DC BKK, The Bossman hopped a plane this week on his way to Tokyo, so we've decided to re-visit one of our favorite episodes of all time. I was a little hesitant about this episode when we first published it three years ago, but since that time, we have received a lot of feedback about how important this episode has been to our listeners. This episode came at a time when we had our first $100,000 month, and we still stand behind these 6 key principles that make up our Tao of the Hustle.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/scale/ Bossman and I are in Bangkok, gearing up for DC BKK, and we are chatting with our friend Jacob Puhl this week. Jacob is one of our speakers here for the event, and he has built a really unique and successful productized service business, geared primarily toward the dental industry. He really has a lot of valuable knowledge on how to scale a business. We're gonna be talking about how to overcome the complications of investing in and expanding a service business and the five ways to turn your services business into a salable asset.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/canton/ The Canton Fair is taking place this October, so I was really happy to run into my old friend Matt Kowolak from HighCappin.com. Matt has been living as an entrepreneur in China for ten years, and he is the person I go to whenever I have a question about the country. We chat it up about the history of the fair, what it feels like to attend such a historic trade show and what kind of opportunities exist there. He also shares a broad overview of what living in China as an expatriate is like and how to take advantage of their entrepreneurial culture.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/semiprocycling/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/semiprocycling/ Podcast 35:04 | Download | Stitcher | iTunes | Comment This week, we’re going to talk all about how to find your unique voice in the marketplace, and how to build an entertaining and informative show that can help you generate a location-independent income. Damien Ruse from SemiProCycling.com is doing just that. He is a...

http://www.tropicalmba.com/fatcat/ I'm in Bangkok this week, getting set up for DC BKK and I was very excited to run into our good friend David Hehenberger from WPCast.fm and FatCatApps.com. His products help marketers drive conversions from their Wordpress sites. This is really a full-circle moment for us, as David used to edit the show in the early days of our Podcast. David has since downshifted to focus on building a software company that he felt would be sustainable and generate income on his own terms. We're gonna be talking with David about how he got his company off the ground, how difficult it really is to develop a software product, and the challenges of working within the Wordpress ecosystem.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/1konline/ With over 260 episodes, some of our listeners have been asking us which episodes of our show are the best to share with people who want to learn more about the location independent lifestyle. We thought this posed a pretty interesting challenge, and we've decided to create a five part series that people can download to get an overall sense of what the location independent startup community is all about. On this first episode in the series, we are going to be going over five key points on how to make your first $1000 online.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/gettingtraction/ On last week's episode, our good friend Taylor Pearson mentioned that one of the most universally fundamental traits that all successful entrepreneurs have is sales skills. We're gonna be talking about how to build that skill set so you can get your first 100 customers. We are also answering a bunch of listener questions about fighting the Amazon beast, how to get the most out of events, and our thoughts on visiting the U.S. after an extended time abroad.

http://www.tropicalmba.com/portablebar/ We put Taylor Pearson in charge of our Portable Bar company in its infancy, and he helped us grow our business 527% in the first 18 months, to the point where we are consistently having healthy mid 5-figure months. This week, Bossman is back and we are chatting with Taylor about what it's like to evolve from a small business that is just keeping the lights on to a real significant source of wealth. We're talking about the old-school tactics we used to grow our business, and how we have used the advice that we give in this show in real life situations.