Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle

Episode 43: TMBA 043 (LBP43) – 4 Weeks, $80,000 Dollars

Hey party people, I just stepped foot back in Manila and I’m catching up on mounds of email. This episode was recorded about a week ago. We have had tons more going on and a few more KILLER iTunes reviews since that time, thanks to everyone who takes the time to say nice things about the show there. Looking forward to recording another show this week! :)

Episode 42: TMBA 042 (LBP42) – [Use at Your Own Risk] Develop a Revenue Stream with the PIVOT Method

YO! How are you? I’ve been back in the old USA for over one week now and I’m having tons of thoughts about it (its been over a year!) I hope to write a few blog posts about it. In this episode Ian and I discuss concepts that regular listeners of the show are probably pretty used to hearing from us. We currently have a lot of overhead in our business and we are exploring ways to efficiently deploy our staff to stuff that makes us money. Last month we had a nice little revenue hit from a new pr...

Episode 41: TMBA 041 (LBP41) – Two Four Hour Work Week Fallacies

Hello from the good old USA, I believe this is our first 100% USA ‘cast in over a year. Yeowwwza! This is a big long episode where we talk about a wide variety of topics. In particular, we talk about why I believe Virtual Staff Finder is currently the best way to get started hiring virtual assistants in the Philippines. Check out Virtual Staff Finder today and get a free copy of my 44,000 word book The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Outsourcing to the Philippines. It’s Friday night, I’m too tired to...

Episode 40: TMBA 040 (LBP40) – How to Create a 100 Dollar Information Product in 48 Hours

Hello from Bali! I really like it here. So far Bali is proving to be charming, sophisticated, and beautiful. Certainly a nice break from the Philippines which be a bit rough around the edges. It was great to record a podcast in the same room as @AnythingIan ! We’ve been getting a lot of work done this week, both on our core business and on a brand new information product we are cooking up. We are going to walk our listeners through the process of starting an internet based business from the g...

Episode 39: TMBA 039 (LBP39) – 4 Tips for Deciding if a Market is Worth Attacking

Hello from Malaysia! Well everybody I’m almost ready to hop on to a plane to meet up with @anythingian in BALI of all places. We are both long overdue to un-plug from the daily duties of our current lifestyle business, and focus on launching a brand new site that has some really cool implications for our lifestyle and current business. We are looking forward to sharing all of that with you on the podcast, and I’m sure that if we can be more transparent with our stuff on this show the listener...

Episode 38: TMBA 038 (LBP38) – How to Lose Weight and Make Money Online

Yeah buddy welcome back to another episode of the Lifestyle Business Podcast, got a little hung up there on timing we’ve been doing a lot of traveling and have been VERY busy with visitors, investments, and having a little fun too! In this episode Ian and I break one of our social standards– in general we are very AGAINST unsolicited critical feedback (UCF!) but we had a nice discussion talking about Dallas Carter’s great website. None of this applies to Dallas necessarily because there are p...

Episode 37: TMBA 037 (LBP37) – 5 Listener Questions about Location Independence and Business

I’ve been spending so much time responding to emails it finally dawned on me that I could respond with a podcast. WOW. Sometimes I am slow. That’s the new policy. In most cases we’ll answer questions that can benefit the whole community. Not only is this more valuable to everyone listening to the show, but I’m sure it will work out well for the person asking the question as well. I have opinions, but I’m absolutely certain that our collective audience knows way more about these issues than me...

Episode 36: TMBA 036 (LBP36) – Offices are So Old School

Hey you guys are good for a lot of things but nobody stepped up to tell me getting an office was one big fat stupid idea! JOKE! Kidding…No, I think as entrepreneurs growing a new kind of business, there aren’t any hard and fast rules so we end up testing out a lot of new ideas to see if they stick. One of this year’s big experiements was starting a brick and mortar office here in the Philippines. I learned a TON from doing this but it wasn’t really creating the explosive growth we thought it ...

Episode 35: TMBA 035 (LBP35) – 4 Things You Should Never Do in Your Business

Heya everyone– I gotta say I feel I am SUPER qualified to talk about stuff that you shouldn’t do in your business. I’ve made a million mistakes, and some of the stuff we bring up in this episode is so damn tricky for me I still can’t get it right. I had a great time in Palawan this weekend– WOW what a place to visit, so quiet, so much to see and do and although there isn’t much of a tourism industry, its still very easy to make your way around. More on that on the next episode!

Episode 34: TMBA 034 (LBP34) – 5 Principles That Work for us That the Internet Marketing Gurus Can’t Sell

Part of the reason Ian and I love Gary Vee so much is that he talks about some basic business fundamentals that don’t get brought up by many online business gurus. The two biggest things that have made us money? Hustle, and getting on the damn phone. <—- watch this awesome Gary Vee cold call video. This episode is about the dirty side of building a lifestyle business– we bring up 5 more “alternative” principles that have helped us to get our business off the ground that you aren’t going to he...

Episode 33: TMBA 033 (LBP33) – How to Pick a Niche that Makes Money, and Six Tips on How to Be a Millionaire in Three Years

Dan and Ian discuss a post by Jason L. Baptiste of Cloudomatic made on Hacker News on how to be a millionaire in three years (or a really short time). They talk extensively about six out of the thirty seven tips from Jason’s post, such as leveraging skills you already know. In this new format, they also answer two reader questions: choosing a niche that makes money, and how to go about purchasing a laptop. (Dan’s Tip: Buy a Mac).

Episode 32: TMBA 032 (LBP32) – How to Create a $6000 Dollar a Month Site in 5 Months, and Tips on Niche Selection

Dan and Ian talk about how they built a site that generates $6000 in revenue in five months and some great tips on niche selection. They also discuss why it’s important to have a phone number on your site, a great service to sell products, and a rant on the limitations of Quickbooks.

Episode 31: TMBA 031 (LBP31) – 3 Tips for Profitable Networking

Dan and Ian discuss why you should become an expert in your industry, and ways you can become one. They also talk the importance of networking, and how being a part of a mastermind group will give you that social network, but also a support system. A critical part of an entrepreneurship. They also mention a couple of clever Gmail hacks, two SEO tips, and one file sharing software that has made their business easier.

Episode 30: TMBA 030 (LBP30) – How We Manage Our Finances and Minimize Taxes, Plus LLCs vs Corporations

Dan and Ian talk about how they manage their finances, the challenges of an LLC and how to hypothetically minimize your tax burden. Dan also briefly discusses three software tips while waxing on his new MacBook, while Ian reveals one program that could potentially change their business.

Episode 29: TMBA 029 (LBP29) – Get To Know Your Team, 3 Internet Marketing Tips That Require Hustle, and Info on the Tropical MBA II

Dan and Sean talk about the importance of getting to know your team, old school marketing tips that will really get you to hustle, as well as Sean’s experience on the Tropical MBA and his first impression of the Philippines.

Episode 28: TMBA 028 (LBP28) – How to Visualize Your Target Revenue and Find Your Five Hours

Episode 27: TMBA 027 (LBP27) – How to Build a Membership Site, Pre-launch, and Virtual Relationships with Tyrone Shum

Dan and Tyrone Shum discuss how to build a membership site, how to execute a successful pre-launch, and how to cultivate online relationships with other entrepreneurs.

Episode 26: TMBA 026 (LBP26) – Why I’m Not Publishing Another Podcast (Myself)

A housekeeping episode where Ian and I talk about the future of this show and how our business is evolving around it. Its a good one for you folks who have been around a while!

Episode 025: TMBA 025 (LBP25) - How to Make Money Online

Episode 24: TMBA 024 (LBP24) – Why Chris Ducker Wants to Manage 200 Employees from His Laptop, and What it Takes to Make It

The audio quality of this podcast starts off pretty rough and then improves around the 2:00 mark. Chris Ducker and I got together in Manila last week to talk about a broad range of sweeeet business goings ons, we turned on the tape recorder for some of it. Here I’ve published the parts pertaining to the lifestyle elements of running his business.

Episode 23: TMBA 023 (LBP23) – One Way Out of the Rat Race, and a Killer Blog Success Story with Sean from Location180.com

Sean is the recipient of the first paid internship for aspiring digital nomads, The Tropical MBA. As you can tell from the interview, Sean is a super sharp guy and doesn’t need the Tropical MBA to achieve success. Ian and I are really fortunate to be able to work with him for the first semester of the program. Sean brings up tons of awesome principles in the interview. You can find Sean at Location180.com.

Episode 22: TMBA 022 (LBP22) – How We Got Milked for Thousands of Dollars Outsourcing, Our Only Automation Secret, and A Market Where Fortunes Will Be Made

This episode is in interview style. Ian thought it would be cool to dredge up the whole narrative of how we got inspired to start outsourcing and all the mistakes we made along the way.

Episode 21: TMBA 021 (LBP21) – How We Are Making a Couple Hundred Thousand Dollars and the Most Exciting City in the World for Internet Businesses

Heya everyone, this is the first episode where we get in to deal-making. We’ve been really busy as I’m sure you can tell if you listen to the episode! We are excited to touch base with everyone who is listening. It’s been so great to hear from everyone who’s contacted us. I really like this kind of content and I’m hoping we can do more high-level deal making stuff in the future. We also talk a lot about outsourcing opportunities in the Philippines.

Episode 20: TMBA 020 (LBP20) – 3 Things on Our Mind – Selling, Passion, and Vision PLUS How Social Media Changed our Thailand Experience

This episode was recorded in the same room(!) in Phuket, Thailand, on one of our quarterly global meet-up brainstorming extravaganzas. Hope you’ll enjoy some ideas we are cooking up. You can connect with us on twitter, if you are in to that kind of thing.

Episode 19: TMBA 019 (LBP19) – Season 2 is Here – 8 Business Principles We Wish We Knew Before Starting Our Business

Hiya podcast listeners, thanks for dropping by our site. Ian and I are currently on a goal-setting retreat in Krabi province, Thailand. On Saturday we are going to the famous (infamous?) Koh Phi Phi to have a blast, but for now we are busy setting goals and working on some big projects for 2010. Here on the podcast we’ve committed to producing at least 1 new episode every week. We’ll focus a lot more on content and try to step up our level of professionalism and usefulness. On your end, we ho...

Episode 18: TMBA 018 (LBP18) – A Crash Course in Article Marketing and How to Outrank Your Competition on Google

I gave a ring to my SEO expert and good friend Tom to give us that crash course in article marketing I promised in earlier. If you enjoy Tom’s advice, I’m sure I can hook him into more regular appearances, just let us know your SEO questions! As I said, this guy has 1000’s of dollars locked up in his head! We are not sending out emails for every episode, that means you need to pull our itunes feed or RSS feed (both links on sidebar and header) in order to get immediate updates. Twitter doesn’...

Episode 17: TMBA 017 (LBP17) – 6 Shady Business Tactics We Use to Grow Our Business

Listen to this episode before our lawyer makes us take it down!

Episode 16: TMBA 016 (LBP16)– Baselining and Creative Start-up Scenarios in Asia

I’m pullin’ in quick excerpt from Gary Vee about baselining. We’ll discuss creative start up scenarios in Asia, ask how hungry are you, introduce the concept of resort hopping, and the future of Asian lifestyle destinations as marquee locations for new online based entrepreneurs and start-ups.

Episode 15: TMBA 015 (LBP15) – 4 Ways to Sustain Passion in Your Business

We’ve also determined that there are two types of people in the world: those who are crushing it, and those who are not. Look around the room right now– see anybody who is crushing it? We know you are crushing it!

Episode 14: TMBA 014 (LBP14) – Our 4 Hour Work Week Success Story

We read the 4 Hour Work Week, wrote down some goals, and started a company. Over 2 years later, we’re here to tell you about it. Plus some other stuff. Enjoy!

Episode 013: TMBA 013 (LBP13) – Procrastination and a Task’s Entrepreneurial Lifespan

Episode 12: TMBA 012 (LBP12) – 10 Great Software and Tech Services We Use to Help Run Our Business

Hey everybody, we are back with a list of 10 inexpensive online software services (and some other tools!) we use to help us run our businesses and stay productive. All of these services are either very inexpensive or free, and can be implemented in your business immediately. Hope you enjoy!

Episode 011: TMBA 011 (LBP11) – Travel Hacking, Flashpacking, and Super Lightweight Backpacking

Episode 10: TMBA 010 (LBP10) – An Insider’s Look at Outsourcing in the Philippines

This is the first episode recorded from two corners of the globe (the Philippines, and San Diego California). Today we take an insider’s look at outsourcing in the Philippines. We cover topics like: The best websites to hire outsourced professionals to help your business grow. Why the Philippines could be a HUGE opportunity for your business. The salary ranges you can expect for copywriters, web developers, and web marketers. We briefly mention a paid internship we’ll be launching later this ...

Episode 9: TMBA 009 (LBP9) – One Major Myth About Entrepreneurship (And More!)

In this episode we explore one major myth about entrepreneurship, how to program your brain, and why home owners give bad advice. We also give a parting shot with a definition of what lifestyle business is really all about. In other news, I am currently on a world class tropical island with very few tourists and great WIFI. I’m doing it for LESS than it costs me to live in California. Shortly I’ll be pulling together the economics of how living in paradise can actually save you money. I’ll be...

Episode 8: TMBA 008 (LBP8) – How to Overcome Fear

I was really inspired by Frank Kern’s recent videos with Tony Robbins on how to overcome fear– I pulled out a fear-beating technique I’ve used on many occasions to take on difficult but valuable tasks.

Episode 7: TMBA 007 (LBP7) – Common Sources of Passive Income for Lifestyle Designers

Lifestyle designers need passive income, or at least sources of income that aren’t tied to time or location. Let’s call it “results based mobile income.” I’ve seen so many interesting ways to creative an incredible lifestyle, and in this episode I’ll share a few– each method of creating a passive income is inspired by actual people I’ve met along my travels. I am doing some tweeting at @Danspodcast, but the best way to reach me is via email, [email protected]

Episode 6: TMBA 006 (LBP6) – What is the Fastest Way to Grow Your Business?

Thanks to everyone who wrote us great questions on the last podcast. This episode is about the single most important thing we think you can do to grow your business today. We hope you enjoy it. You can send your questions to [email protected] or follow me on twitter @DansPodcast.

Episode 5: TMBA 005 (LBP5) – Flashpackers Travel the World While Running Their Businesses Part 2

In this episode Ian and I finish up our discussion about 10 key differences between business flashpackers and more traditional backpackers. You can follow my updates on twitter @Danspodcast. See you next episode!

Episode 4: TMBA 004 (LBP4) – Flashpackers Travel the World While Running Their Businesses Part 1

In this episode, we get started with our 2 part conversation about a select group of entrepreneurs who have decided to create businesses while they travel the world. They fall into a new group of travelers called flashpackers, and we discuss how this new group of mobile entrepreneurs travel differently than their backpacker brethren.

Episode 3: TMBA 003 (LBP3) – 10 Unexpected Benefits of Quitting Your Job

In this episode of the Lifestyle Business Podcast, my friend Ian drops by to discuss 10 unexpected benefits of quitting your job to start your own businesses. At the end of the episode, Ian shares a website he uses to get professional logos at bargain prices. If you’d like to ask some business or lifestyle related questions for inclusion in next week’s episode, please direct them to [email protected].

Episode 2: TMBA 002 (LBP2) – 10 Signs You Are a Lifestyle Entrepreneur, or Lifestyle Designer

First, thanks to everyone who signed up on the mailing list last week, and to those of you who have submitted questions for this week. You can ask your own questions by dropping an email to [email protected] In this episode I’ll give you 10 signs you are a lifestyle entrepreneur or lifestyle designer, and answer a question from a listener about how to find a great mastermind group or mentor to jump start your progress. PS, you can follow me on twitter @DansPodcast

Episode 1: TMBA 001 (LBP1) – How to Identify a Product

Fresh out of the oven, here is the first episode of the Lifestyle Business Podcast, I’m really excited to get things kicked off, and I’ve jumped right in to one of the techniques I use to help identify a new product. If you have any questions you’d like to ask for a future episode, you can drop a line @ [email protected].