Tropical MBA – Location Independent Entrepreneurship

Dan and Ian have spent a substantial amount of their life making this show, nearly 8 years to be exact. What better way to celebrate the 400th episode of this podcast than to return to one of their favorite episode formats: the good, old-fashioned Q&A. This week, Dan and Ian are answering more listener questions, and riffing on topics like "Comfy Bed Syndrome" and "The Golden Handcuffs". You'll also hear some retrospective thoughts on 8 years of talking about entrepreneurship.

Today's show is the product of a dream that Dan and Ian both had, which inspired them to follow up with an old friend. The topic is a rather simple one. What if you could take your curiosity and energy about a topic and turn it into a serious business? In pursuing the answer, they both decided it was a good time to check in with their former business partner Jesse Lawler, who hosts a fantastic podcast called Smart Drug Smarts. Jesse didn't start the podcast with a PhD in medicine, or anything relevant to the medicinal field except a genuine desire to explore these issues, and he has had a tremendous amount of success in doing it. On this show, Jesse shares how was able to turn something that he was passionate about into a full-time business that generates real revenue. We hope this episode will inspire those of you who are passionate and curious to find a way to tell your own story.

Dan and Ian often speak on this podcast about how businesses and entrepreneurs evolve. Today's guest, Michael Erikson, has certainly done that since the last time he spoke on this show. Michael's journey started, as many of ours do, staring at a blank Google search screen and typing in the words "How do I make money online?" Several years later, Michael has spoken at several of the Dynamite Circle events. He was on this podcast last December, sharing his journey of building a 6 figure services business called Search Scientists. Michael has recently started a new company called AdBadger, which is in essence a software version of his previous services company. On this week's show, you'll hear Michael share insight on how to do something that most services entrepreneurs dream of doing: selling a product.

On today's show, Dan and Ian are once again reaching into the mailbag to answer some questions from the listeners of this show. You'll hear practical answers about a whole slew of topics, including purchasing an"entrepreneurmobile", The 1,000 Day Principle, and what it means to be useful. You'll also hear advice on how you can go to conferences for free, tips for traveling to Southeast Asia with your family and much, much more.

As many of our listeners know, Dan and Ian hosted an event in Austin, TX last week that brought together entrepreneurs from all over the world to talk about their businesses. Today's episode features five of the most important takeaways from that event, focusing primarily on the cold, hard realities of what it means to be an entrepreneur in 2017. These subjects range from hiring A players to harnessing your "superpowers" and much, much more. You'll also hear a lot of news about the podcast, including an opportunity for one talented listener to win a $1500 cash prize.

One of the dichotomies that Dan and Ian often address on this show is the difference between being an entrepreneur and having a job. Today's podcast is going to cover a rather taboo subject in some entrepreneurial circles, which is the decision to stop being an entrepreneur and go back to the daily grind of a 9-to-5. Anna Wickham is a former TropicalMBA intern, who traveled the world for nearly ten years and eventually started her own marketing agency called Charm House. Anna had been feeling pressure to remain an entrepreneur, even though she wasn't sure that it was the best fit for her. In this episode, Anna opens up to share her fears and hesitations about the entrepreneurial life, and why she ultimately decided that it wasn't healthy for her to keep pursuing it.

One of the things that Dan and Ian are most passionate about is finding great blogs and podcasts. These days, the internet seems to be getting smaller and smaller. You really need to dig deep to find unique content, and a lot of it is being made in the most remote corners of the internet. Once upon a time, though, there was a search engine that highlighted blogs themselves. Richard Jalichandra is the former CEO of Technorati.com, which at one time was considered by many to be the gateway into the blogosphere. During their quest for great blogs, Dan and Ian became curious as to why this company disappeared. On this week's episode, Richard shares the story of Technorati, as well as the details of his long and storied career in the early days of the world wide web.

It's safe to say that Dan and Ian get a lot of pitches in their inbox. These pitches come in a variety of forms, but the people that send these pitches often follow a lot of the same archetypes. In general, there is a whole lot of asking going on. On today's episode, Dan and Ian will be following up on their recent sales episode, and providing some useful, actionable information on how you can pitch people successfully through cold emails. First, they will be sharing some successful pitches they have received, as well as the types of pitches they dread seeing in their inbox. They will also be sharing a three-step formula to creating winning pitches that won't end up being archived or deleted.

This week's episode is another chapter in a long-running series on this podcast, where Dan and Ian have been exploring the locations around the globe that entrepreneurs are moving to. Today, you will hear from two entrepreneurs who have made Thailand, and more specifically the northern capital of Chiang Mai, their home bases for the portion of a year. Philippe Bordeau is the founder of HammockUniverse.com. He shares his story, including the details of a Visa that he has acquired that allows him to be a resident of Thailand for up to 6 years at a time. Leanne Woodmass, along with her husband, runs an Amazon Fulfillment Brokerage. She has been living in Thailand for the past few years. You'll hear how a community of expats and entrepreneurs enticed them both to stay in Chiang Mai.

Podcast 43:29 | Download | Stitcher | iTunes | Comment Just over a year ago, Dan and Ian profiled a productized bookkeeping business called the Bean Ninjas. A lot has happened since that episode aired. In particular, the founders of that company, Ben McAdam and Meryl Johnson, have decided to part ways. This episode is an...

One of the topics that Dan and Ian have repeatedly been asked to talk about on this show is sales. The reality for the majority of the entrepreneurs who listen to this show is that their businesses live or die by their sales funnel. It's also one of the number one things that entrepreneurs struggle to get good at. When Dan and Ian decided to do this episode, they knew there was only one person that they could call to talk about how to really get better at sales. John Logar is an extremely talented and successful salesperson, and he has always been very generous about sharing his advice on sales. On this week's show, John shares some of those insights, including a 4 step daily process that John guarantees will bring you more sales. This isn't going to be a drive by, top ten list type of an episode. This is a deep dive into the type of skills and habits that will help you build a better, more profitable sales funnel for your business.

One of the requests that Dan and Ian have received a lot on this show is to do more of an old school episode; the kind of one-on-one conversation that permeated the early days of this podcast. On this week's episode, they are doing just that. Dan and Ian are reaching back into the TropicalMBA mailbag and answering questions that listeners have submitted through the mailing list on a variety of topics, including advice for entrepreneurs who don't know where to begin, why being an entrepreneur means that you might lose a lot of friends, and what the two of them have been up to lately.

Dan and Ian are always looking for new ways to increase their productivity. In a lot of ways, Dan and Ian have often used this show as a means to explore places, though they have never explored those places in the ways that today's guest has. Chuck Marohn is the president of a nonprofit organization called Strong Towns. Through his work with Strong Towns, Chuck has helped to create a framework for how our cities and towns can become financially stronger and more prosperous. Today's podcast is an inspiring, and perhaps controversial, conversation about what kinds of towns and cities we want to live in, and what those places will look like in the future.

Dan and Ian are always looking for new ways to increase their productivity. Quite often, there is a mental cost that comes with any kind of productivity boost. Generally speaking, the harder a person works, the more stress is added to their life. But what if there were a few easy steps to increase productivity without these kinds of costs? Dan has recently traveled to New York City, and whenever he makes his way to the city, he always makes it a point to catch up with Taylor Pearson. Taylor is the author of The End of Jobs, and a very frequent guest on this show. On this week's episode, Taylor shares four productivity strategies that he has tested himself and teaches his students. He believes these strategies are the path to becoming more capable and productive without adding any stress to our lives.

One of the things that Dan and Ian discuss pretty frequently on this show are the places in the world that location independent people tend to gravitate toward. In this community a lot of people move around for lifestyle and social reasons, but traditionally business owners have moved to places that are offer low tax situations, or otherwise business friendly environments. On today's show, two of our listeners are going to share their experiences of living in a few of these countries; Panama and Andorra. Jase Rodley is a digital marketer for boutique hotels who visited Andorra with his wife Jess about 18 months ago and fell in love with it. Matt Landau owns his own boutique hotel in Panama, and he used his experience in that industry to create his own online business targeted towards vacation rental owners. You'll hear the two of them share their stories about why they chose to live these countries, and what makes them so appealing to digital nomads who are looking for a place to settle down.