Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle

Rob Walling is no stranger to many of the listeners of this show. Rob is the host of a brilliant podcast called Startups for the Rest of Us, where he has shared stories of entrepreneurial ingenuity and struggle, and many concepts that we have discussed on this show have origins on that podcast. He is also the co-founder of a conference called MicroConf, which is a community and conference for bootstrap SaaS founders. After a rather impressive exit with his last startup, Drip, Rob has moved on to his newest project, an accelerator designed for early-stage SaaS startups called TinySeed. Rob joins us this week to discuss some high-level concepts like the emotional challenges of entrepreneurship, to finer details like finding the right pricing models, and how they decided on the right deal terms for TinySeed companies.

On today's podcast, we are sharing some personal updates, as well as three specific updates about our core businesses. We are also announcing that for the first time in nearly five years, we are hiring a Community Facilitator for our private membership group The Dynamite Circle. Later on in the episode, we'll be exploring the idea of the moment in a business that Seth Godin refers to as "The Dip". You'll hear why this "middle period" of running a business is so difficult, how it feels to be in that dip, and why so many people just can't get out of it.

Productized services have long been a subject of discussion on this podcast. They are a relatively attractive business model, especially among first-time entrepreneurs, and we've shared many examples over the years of how to create these kinds of businesses and scale them. Meryl Johnston, founder of the online bookkeeping firm Bean Ninjas, recently started a rather lively debate in the members' forum of our online community The Dynamite Circle with a post titled, ‘Are Productized Services Overrated?’ We've invited Meryl on to the show to find out why she decided to raise that question and to hear her thoughts on a business model that she has personally followed for the last five years. Meryl joins us today to discuss what a productized service really is, the strengths and weaknesses of the model, and why she's wondering whether her own company needs to evolve past it.

Christopher Gimmer is the Co-Founder and CEO of Snappa, a SaaS (Software as a Service) business that allows users to create online graphics quickly and easily. Christopher caught our attention recently when he opened up with a post on Twitter about the emotional cost of being an entrepreneur. We invited Christopher onto the podcast this week to discuss his own journey as an entrepreneur, how difficult it can be for entrepreneurs to find and maintain what he calls "a healthy equilibrium", and how he works to achieve his own balance. You'll also hear why Christopher feels that having a business partner has been key to Snappa’s eventual success and what he sees as the pros and cons of SaaS businesses.

It started with an innocuous-looking image of a yellow aeroplane and ended with a number of threatening letters from a law firm on behalf of the travel site Expedia. In today’s episode, we bring you the denouement of the story of why we decided to remove ‘that plane’ from our branding. And, to find out whether we really needed to do it, we’ve invited back our good friend and Intellectual Property (IP) attorney Sarah Kornblet Waldbuesser from Destination Legal. You'll also hear Sarah's thoughts on the best way to protect your brand or logo, how to differentiate between "trademark scams" and what should be taken seriously, and a whole lot more.

On today's podcast, we're excited to finally reveal that our remote jobs platform Dynamite Jobs is officially a ".com business". After three years of running the company with a .co domain, that .com marks a huge symbolic change for our company, but it didn't come cheap. Enter Rob Barbour of DomainSOS.com and DomainVIP.com. Rob has worked in the domain space for over twenty years and he owns a substantial portfolio of his own domains. He also specializes in helping people acquire domains that are difficult to obtain. In this week's podcast, Rob joins us to talk about his history as a domain broker, how the industry has changed over 20 years, and how he helped us secure DynamiteJobs.com for our business.

If we had to pick one word as our greatest motivation, it’s ‘freedom’. Freedom to live life on our terms, where we want, with the people we choose. Ali Marsland is the director of ‘The Effective English Company’. Ali began chasing her own freedom at the age of 18, as she traveled around the world for a year before embarking on a successful career in corporate communications. The corporate world eventually made her feel trapped, and when the opportunity arose to become a freelancer, she decided to chase that freedom once more. Ali joins us on this week's podcast to describe how she ‘stair-stepped’ her way into entrepreneurship by first becoming an on-site freelancer to outsourcing work, and eventually growing her own successful agency.

At the beginning of the year, we recorded a podcast where we outlined some of our business goals and aspirations for 2020. We're now halfway through the year, and it's safe to say these past six months have been a period of disruption for entrepreneurs all over the world. Given the unexpected circumstances that we've all experienced, we thought it would be interesting to revisit those goals that we shared on this podcast back in January. In today's episode, we're looking back at how our business goals have played out thus far in 2020, how our plans have changed since we first recorded that podcast, and what we've learned from the last six months.

In 2009, we published an episode of this podcast called 10 Great Software and Tech Services We Use to Run Our Business. Over 10 years later, we've been challenged by one of our listeners to revisit that list and to talk about the core software and services that we are using to run our company today. In this week's episode, we are sharing ten of the most important tools and services that we are using behind the scenes in our business. You'll hear the specifics of how we are using these tools, and why they have become an everyday part of our business in 2020.

We've talked about the '1,000 Day Principle' at great length on this podcast. The idea is that it takes around three years of full-time effort for an entrepreneur to replace the income from their day job. But what does that principle look like in practice? Johnathan Solorzano is the founder of Solo Media Group Inc., a remote agency of web developers that are primarily based in Latin America. Johnathan joins us this week to share the story of his first 1,000 days running an agency, how he has found clients and fostered relationships with them, and where he plans on focusing his energy for the next 1,000 days.

Here at the TropicalMBA podcast we have been inspired and motivated by the stories of resilience and adaptation that you’ve been sending us. One such story that we received recently resonated strongly with us, in part because it was about an industry that we have been working in for years. William Griggs created Virtual Reality Rental just over four years ago. He built a ten-person team that brought VR experiences to conferences, parties, and other corporate events across the United States. Then COVID-19 struck and it all collapsed literally overnight, forcing him to reduce his staff by more than half. William joins us today to share his strategy for waiting out the current uncertainty in the events industry, and how he's challenging his remaining team to grow into the new roles that are necessary for these times.

What do you do when you lose over half your Annual Recurring Revenue and test positive for Coronavirus, all within 48 hours? Jim Huffman described this exact experience in a post on his personal blog titled "The Hardest Day of My Career". Jim is the CEO of GrowthHit and co-creator of FunnelTeardowns, and when we discovered his blog post we knew we had to talk to him. Jim joins us on today's podcast to share his insights on how to create a successful marketing agency that aligns with your lifestyle, the strategies he deployed to save his company after facing such a dramatic event, and his plans for the future in the 'new normal'.

"Dropshipping" is one of the most used and abused terms in Digital Nomad circles. It refers to the practice of selling items without keeping inventory on hand, relying instead on a third-party manufacturer to ship the items directly to the customer. The term recently reached a much broader audience through a widely-shared piece in Wired magazine by Sirin Kale titled “‘It’s bullshit’: Inside the weird, get-rich-quick world of dropshipping”. On today's podcast, Dan and Ian weigh in with some of their own thoughts about the article, whether dropshipping can be used to create long-term success, and the pros and cons of the business model itself.

In our book Before the Exit, we reflected on many 'thought experiments' that we wished we had run before we sold our business in 2015. One of those experiments was called 'The Mediocre CEO Test', which questioned whether it was smarter to hire someone to run your business than it was to sell it. Today's guest did just that. JP Ji is the founder of Pro Teeth Guard, an eCommerce business that manufactures custom dental mouth guards. When JP decided to shift his focus away from Pro Teeth Guard, he chose to hire a General Manager to take over the day-day-day operations of the business. In today's podcast, you'll hear why JP decided to hire a general manager, the challenges of finding the right candidate, and why that relationship ultimately didn't pan out.

One of the most widely read and recommended books about business management is Gino Wickman’s 'Traction'. When Gino’s team reached out to say that he had a new book coming out that was aimed at helping would-be and early-stage entrepreneurs, we jumped at the opportunity to invite Gino on to the podcast to talk about it. On today's podcast, Ian sits down with Gino to discuss the ideas raised in his new book, ‘Entrepreneurial Leap’. In this wide-ranging conversation, you'll hear Gino's thoughts on the value of going to college, whether you should be following the passion or the money, and why not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur.

Whether you’re saving a runway for a new business, or you need to cut your expenses to the bone due to the current economic climate, we know a lot of people are being forced to make some difficult financial decisions right now. On today's podcast, we are revisiting one of our most popular concepts, and something that we've discussed many times over the years as a sure-fire way for an entrepreneur to live a little more frugally. We're talking once again about the "Entrepreneurmobile", or how you can get a reliable car that is generally inexpensive to maintain and fix, and that can save you a lot of money. In this episode, we take a comprehensive look at what makes a great Entrepreneurmobile, which cars you should avoid, 10 cars that are great deals under $10K, and some luxury vehicles that are extremely affordable as well.

One of the things we love about our online community of entrepreneurs, the Dynamite Circle, is that the members of that community are not only incredibly globalized but oftentimes deeply ingrained in the cultures and economics of the places they live. Brian Miller is the founder of Easy China Warehouse, a third-party logistics company that helps entrepreneurs who sell online consolidate products in China. Brian was in a rare position where he was able to see the Coronavirus unfolding as he lived and worked in Shenzhen, China. Brian joins us today to talk about his experience in China as the virus began to spread, the trajectory that China has been on since January, and what the future could possibly look like for the rest of the world.

In this week's episode, we've invited one of our favorite bloggers and thinkers to pull up a virtual chair and share some of the burning issues he’s been writing about. Nat Eliason is the founder and CEO of a marketing agency called Growth Machine, as well as the author of a fantastic blog at NatEliason.com. Nat is not only a successful agency owner, but he has some incredibly fascinating theories about entrepreneurship and scaling a multi-million dollar agency that we were just so excited to pick his brain about. Nat joins us this week for a wide-ranging discussion, where he opens up about his aversions to "struggle porn", the distinction between money and wealth, and the true nuts and bolts of running a successful agency.

One of the silver linings to the strange times that we've been living through in the past few weeks, is that we've been able to reach out to some of the brightest minds in our community and get a sense of how they have been responding to the crisis. Travis Jamison is no stranger to longtime listeners of this show. Travis is a bonafide SEO expert and the founder of Smash Digital. He has also successfully exited a business for 8 figures and is a very active investor as well. Travis recently shared something of an essay on Twitter that we felt captured a lot of our feelings about the current situation that we are all facing. We invited Travis on to the show today to explain those thoughts a bit further and to talk about how we might survive the economic downturn that so many of us are bracing for in the coming months.

As we've been practicing social distancing, the majority of our discussions about business and entrepreneurship keep coming back to the COVID-19 outbreak. In this week's podcast, we've invited one of the most prescient minds about this topic on to the show. Taylor Pearson is a long time friend of the show and has been sounding alarms about the coronavirus for much longer than most. Like us, Taylor is a huge fan of the writings of Nassim Taleb and joins us today to talk about why Taleb's writing has been so relevant in thinking about the ongoing crisis, the global economic impact of events like this, and what the future might hold for us in a post-outbreak world.

The topic of today's podcast is unavoidable. We simply have to address one of the biggest stories of our lifetime, the global shutdown brought about by Coronavirus, or Covid-19. The impact that this pandemic has had on businesses around the globe, including our own, has been enormous. In today's podcast, Dan and Ian are talking about their decision to cancel DC Austin, which would have brought 150 entrepreneurs from around the globe to the city of Austin, Texas in just a few short weeks. You'll also hear our thoughts on the economic implications of the virus, as well as the challenges and opportunities that such a radical event presents for entrepreneurs everywhere.

In today's episode, we are reaching into the TMBA mailbag yet again and responding to some interesting questions and comments we've received from our listeners. There is a word that gets tossed around in the entrepreneurial community, and it's actually something that is worn as a sort of badge of honor. We see it on t-shirts and social media, and it's usually represented by entrepreneurs who have rejected working for an employer at a job where they held no equity. But is it really a good thing to be "Unemployable?" You'll hear our thoughts about that on today's episode, as well as some insight for people who have become frustrated by meet-ups and networking events that aren't providing enough value.

One of the biggest challenges of running a remote team is communication. After all, "watercooler conversations" rarely happen when your team is scattered across the globe. Joe Magnotti is the co-founder of Empire Flippers, a marketplace for buying and selling online businesses. Together with his partner Justin Cooke, they have built a team of over 70 people who are entirely location independent and are located all over the world. Joe joins us on today's podcast to talk about his experience managing a remote team, and how holding twice-annual team retreats has been paramount to the success of Empire Flippers.

We've recently been revisiting some of our favorite business books on this podcast as part of a series we like to call "The Re-Readables". What makes this week's installment of that series so special is that we have been joined by the author of the book himself. M.J. DeMarco wrote The Millionaire Fastlane in 2010, and since then, the book has continued to grow in popularity. The basic premise of the book is that the most successful people have found ways to step off of the "slow lane" or the "sidewalk" to join the "fast lane", usually through entrepreneurial endeavors. M.J. joins us today to talk about the legacy of The Millionaire Fastlane, why it is still as relevant today as it was when it was released, his thoughts on the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement, and much more.

Will Roman is a veteran entrepreneur who has worked in a number of different fields including eCommerce, physical products, software, and even cryptocurrency. At the end of last year, Will made the decision to leave his crypto exchange business to start Chisos, a product company that manufactures and sells designer cowboy boots. Will joins us on the podcast this week to talk about his stressful exit from that company, why he decided to start Chisos, what he has learned from his first year of manufacturing boots, and a whole lot more.

We often talk about the "1,000 Day Principle" or the idea that it will take about 1,000 days to get a new business off the ground before it replaces the income from your 9-to-5. But what happens after those 1,000 Days? Chris Cage's 1,000 Day Journey has been well-documented on previous episodes of this podcast. Chris is the founder of Greenbelly, a company that manufactures high-quality meal bars for hikers. Greenbelly is now over 5 years old, and Chris is facing a whole new set of challenges. Chris joins us this week to talk about how he has handled the "Middle Game" of entrepreneurship. You'll hear about his first full-time hire, how he has created a repeatable process for getting clients, why he is taking time away from the business, and much more.

One of our favorite things to do on this podcast is follow up on some of the entrepreneurial stories that we've covered in the past. This time last year, we recorded a podcast with Tommy Joiner. In that episode, Tommy spoke about the genesis of his productized content generation service ContentPros. Fast forward a year and Tommy has made some massive changes in his life. Not only has he sold ContentPros, but he also chose to part ways with his business partner. In today's episode, Tommy returns to explain why he decided to move on from ContentPros and to share some insights into the exit process as well.

Entrepreneurship is something of a gamble, and perhaps very few people understand that better than today's guest. Mike Jackness is a widely respected figure among the eCommerce community and is the host of a brilliant podcast called ECommCrew. Mike has owned and exited several successful businesses, the most popular of which being ColorIt, which manufactured and sold coloring books aimed at adults. On today's podcast, Mike joins us to talk about the highs and lows of his entrepreneurial career. You'll hear how an obsession with poker turned into Mike's first major foray into entrepreneurship, how he founded and eventually sold ColorIt, and some of the biggest pitfalls that entrepreneurs face in the eCommerce space today.

We here at the Tropical MBA are always fascinated with people who raise questions that challenge the social narratives that most people follow. It's no wonder then that Christoper Ryan caught our attention. Christopher is a New York Times bestselling author, the host of a brilliant podcast called Tangentially Speaking, and is perhaps best known for his 2010 book Sex at Dawn. Christopher recently published a new book called Civilized to Death, which argues that so-called "progress" has actually adversely affected the way we live. He joins us today to talk about his unconventional path to becoming a published author, and why civilization might not represent progress.

Last week, we spoke to Mark Brenwall about why he left his job in San Francisco to move to Asia and start WOD Nation, an Amazon FBA business that sells CrossFit products. Today's podcast is the conclusion of that interview and in it, we speak specifically about Mark's entrepreneurial "code". In this conversation, Mark shares some of his unorthodox business philosophies, as well as some specific insights into the Amazon FBA platform, and why he almost decided to sell his business last year.

Mark Brenwall is the founder of WOD Nation, an Amazon FBA business that sells CrossFit products. A few years ago, Mark joined us for one of our favorite conversations we've had on this podcast in an episode called "The Power of Under Optimization". That episode was all about Mark's unconventional business approach, which prioritizes lifestyle and happiness over aggressive growth. Today's episode is the first in a two-part series where we revisit Mark's story. In this first part, we explore some of the personal and professional circumstances that led Mark to leave a seemingly great life in the United States for the unknown.

A year ago, we kicked off 2019 with a somewhat self-indulgent podcast full of updates on our ongoing projects as well as some of our business goals for the year. As the decade draws to a close, we’re taking stock of the year and asking ourselves “did we meet those expectations”? In today's episode, we are revisiting what we accomplished (and failed to accomplish) in 2019, as well as showcasing some of our business highlights from the year. Stick around to the end of the episode to hear five specific plans and goals that we have in store for our projects in 2020.

As we prepare to celebrate the holiday season, we thought it would be fun to revisit some of our most memorable moments from the podcast in 2019. In this week's episode, you'll hear highlights from some of our favorite interviews, as well as our thoughts on five specific entrepreneurial themes that continue to resonate with us as the year comes to a close. Make sure to stick around until the end to hear some outtakes from recording the podcast in 2019.

Some entrepreneurs have a secret. Adopting a pseudonym, or a "pen name", is a common practice on the internet. Even one of the hosts of this show, Dan Andrews, has been using a pseudonym for many years. Some people do it because their name is difficult to pronounce, others are worried about being stalked, or because they want to improve their Google rankings. We've also spoken to people who regret having taken a "fake identity", and believe it has started to adversely affect their lives. In today's episode, you will hear from several entrepreneurs who have adopted pseudonyms as they share the reasons why they chose to do it, the pros and cons of taking on a pseudonym, and much more.

For the first time in a decade, Dan and Ian are recording a podcast from one of their favorite places in the world, the Philippines. The Philippines has been an integral part of their business for many years, and it continues to have a strong influence on the lives of so many entrepreneurs in the location-independent community. On today's podcast, they'll be discussing their history in the Philippines, what the country has meant to their business, and whether it still makes sense for entrepreneurs to build teams in the Philippines in 2019.

We've seen a lot of conversations recently in the location independent lifestyle space about something we like to call "The Digital Nomad Lie". The general concept is that being location independent is not everything that it's cracked up to be, and that the idea that you can have it all while sipping coconuts on the beach is simply a myth. It's not surprising then that we've seen a rise in blogs and think pieces by digital nomads that are exhausted from travel and yearning to settle down. But why are people feeling this way? At the heart of it, there may be many misconceptions and mistakes that we can make in the way that we think about travel. We've invited our good friend and esteemed author Kyla Gardner on to the show this week to share some of her experiences living a location independent lifestyle, her biggest travel mistakes, and whether the promise of the digital nomad lifestyle is fact or fiction.

So many people listening to this podcast are looking for the kind of freedom that allows them to travel the world. It's no wonder then that Recreational Vehicles or "RVs" have become increasingly popular in the entrepreneurial space in recent years. If you recall, last year we spoke to Ian's friend and mentor Corey Reueth on this podcast about his experiences buying and selling cars and recreational vehicles. In today's episode, Corey and Ian are having an in-depth discussion about the RV lifestyle. You'll hear about the different types of RVs on the market, the benefits and drawbacks to each of them, how much it costs to purchase an RV, and what RV living actually looks like.

Today's podcast is another installment of our ongoing series called "The Re-Readables", where we revisit some of our favorite business books to see if they stand the test of time. This week, we've invited author and online entrepreneur Kyla Gardner back on to the show to talk about the classic marketing book Purple Cow by Seth Godin. Kyla joins us this week to discuss which ideas from Purple Cow have aged the best, which ideas have aged the worst, and how we have utilized some of the "Purple Cow" strategies in our own entrepreneurial careers.

We first spoke to Kevin Graham on this podcast two years ago in what ended up becoming a somewhat controversial episode about building generational wealth on Amazon. Since then, it has become a sort of annual tradition for Kevin to return to the show and update us about his entrepreneurial journey. Last year, he shared his thoughts on "The Helsinki Bus Theory" and his decision to start a web hosting business, which has since become SiteArrow. Since we last spoke, Kevin had adopted a bold strategy of rapid growth, acquiring 9 different businesses in less than a year. That plan ended up being more than he bargained for, though, and he found himself working long hours, getting into unhealthy habits, and ultimately feeling extremely burned out. Kevin joins us today to talk about the perils of chasing growth, the steps that he's taken to course-correct, and the three principles that he has adopted to avoid getting burned out in the future.

A few weeks ago, we hosted hundreds of listeners of this podcast in Bangkok for our eighth annual DC BKK event. Every year we learn more about the entrepreneurs that join us in Thailand. We get to have conversations with some extraordinary people, hear about their successes and their struggles, and get an inside look at the way that internet businesses are being run. On this week's episode, we are sharing five specific insights that we took away from our experience in Bangkok this year, and discussing what those insights mean about the entrepreneurial community at large in 2019.

A few weeks ago, we shared a conversation about "Sweaty Startups", and how we can use internet business skills to compete and win in traditional, physical services industries. This topic really struck a chord, and we've received a ton of feedback from listeners who want to hear more about these kinds of opportunities. Enter Eric Gilbert Williams, an entrepreneur who grew his Canadian-based roofing company to 6 million dollars in annual revenue before he sold it last year. In his teenage years, Eric dropped out of high school and got arrested for selling drugs before eventually turning to entrepreneurship as a source of redemption. Eric joins us on today's podcast to share his remarkable story.

In last week's episode, we took a look at the early days of Dan and Ian's relationship and the circumstances that led to their business partnership. Today's podcast is the second part of that series, and it's all about the next chapter. In this episode, you'll hear how Dan and Ian bought their business partner out of their product company, the origins of this podcast, how they started their membership community The Dynamite Circle, and much more.

In the ten years that Dan and Ian have been recording this podcast, the number one thing that they hear from listeners is that they want to know more about their story. Today's episode is the first part of a two-part documentary series where Dan and Ian open up about their own personal history. In this episode, you will hear why they each decided to move to San Diego, California, the circumstances that led to their meeting, how they became friends, and ultimately how they decided to become business partners.

One of Dan and Ian's favorite things to do is to reach into the mailbag to answer questions from listeners of this show and today they are doing just that. On this week's podcast, you'll hear answers to listener-submitted questions on a variety of topics including how to think about cash flow in your business, what makes a good entrepreneurmobile in 2019, and more. Stick around until the end of the episode for an in-depth update on Dynamite Deals.

A few weeks ago, Dan and Ian invited Nick Huber on to the show to talk about his storage business Storage Squad. During that conversation, Nick shared the story of how he built a successful "old school" business by applying his technical knowledge to a less competitive market. After we stopped recording, that conversation took an interesting turn when Nick started opening up to us about his philosophy for building labor-intensive businesses that he likes to call "Sweaty Startups". On today's podcast, we've invited Nick back to share some of those philosophies, with a focus on the types of business models that he is attracted to, as well as the ones that he isn't particularly fond of.

Dan and Ian opened up on this podcast recently about a cease and desist letter that they received. Today's guest heard that episode and was compelled to share his own story about a similar legal battle. Dylan Smith is the co-founder of Keg Smiths, a company that manufactures and sells mini beer kegs, and he has received his fair share of cease and desist letters in his entrepreneurial career. Dylan joins us this week to share a riveting story about how a cease and desist letter led to his products being removed from Amazon, the ramifications of that experience, and how he was able to ultimately win out and get his products back on Amazon. Make sure to stick around until the end of the podcast to hear this week's Dynamite Deal, which includes a deep discount for legal services for entrepreneurs.

Today's episode features an in-depth look into one particular entrepreneurial journey that Dan and Ian have been following for a decade. Longtime listeners will certainly be familiar with Travis Jamison. Travis has joined us on this show many times in the past, and you've likely heard ads for his newest company Smash Digital on the show in recent weeks. Travis has been on a pretty epic journey since we first met, not just living and working in many countries, but he has become a hugely successful entrepreneur as well. We invited Travis back on to the show this week to share his unbelievable story. You'll hear how he started a supplement company and scaled it almost entirely through SEO, how he transitioned to SEO services, how he then shifted into SEO for Amazon sellers with AMZ Tracker, and how he made some judicious exits from those companies, which has allowed him to take equity stakes in a dozen or more start-ups with the investment arm of his new company.

One of Dan and Ian's favorite things to talk about on this show is the role that technology plays in our lives. They are particularly curious about the ways that new technology and social media can affect our ability to be productive and successful entrepreneurs. Today's guest is a bonafide expert when it comes to technological addiction and how to fight it. Nir Eyal is an accomplished and thoughtful writer on the topic of behavioral design. Nir gained notoriety for writing the book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and he is also the author of an excellent blog at NirAndFar.com. We have invited him on to the podcast today to talk about his new book Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. Indistractable is all about making sure technology takes an appropriate place in your life, and how we can find more space in our own lives to be present and productive. Stick around to the end of the show to hear a brand new feature on this podcast, which includes a very exclusive offer for listeners of this show.

A listener of this podcast recently reached out to Dan and Ian to let them know what he was up to. They were so inspired by his story of "old-school" entrepreneurship that they knew they needed to invite him on to the show to share it. Nick Huber is one of the founders of Storage Squad, a storage company that he started with his business partner Dan in 2011 and has grown to nearly 3 million dollars in sales. Recently, they have begun diversifying into self-storage as well. Nick joins us this week to share the story of Storage Squad, how he and Dan got it off the ground while they were still in college, how they have expanded it to other colleges throughout the United States, and the advantages of running a location-dependent business remotely.

Dan and Ian are well aware that the entrepreneurial journey isn't made up entirely of success stories. Many entrepreneurs listening to this podcast are struggling right now. They might be on the fence about becoming an entrepreneur or reconsidering their decision to become one in the first place. We've talked many times on this podcast about the "1,000 Day Rule"; this idea that it takes roughly 1,000 days of serious hard work to replace the money that you make from your job. Anders Ronnau recently posted in our private community The Dynamite Circle about his own twist on this idea, which he calls "The 4,000 Day Rule". He proposes that after 4,000 days, or roughly ten years, if you haven't had meaningful success building a business for yourself, then you probably need to get a job. We've invited Anders on to the show this week to talk about that rule and to share his own story about how running a business isolated him, and why he ultimately decided he needed to stop being an entrepreneur.