On today's episode Dan and Ian are going to explore the most powerful, and potentially toxic relationship in entrepreneurship; the relationship between a mentor and a mentee. We're doing so by speaking with Tim Conley, a Dynamite Circle member who has quite a bit of experience in these types of relationships. We'll be talking about how to seek out a mentor, what makes a successful mentor, and how these relationships evolve over time.

This week we are chatting with Peter Griffin, a member of the Dynamite Circle who relocated to Austin, TX about two years ago. Peter is a prototypical digital nomad. Starting his own business has afforded him the ability to travel the world, but now that he's getting older, he is starting to figure out what is really important to him. We'll be talking with Peter about why he decided to move to Austin, and what happens to digital nomads when their priorities start to change.

In this episode Dan and Ian offer thoughts, suggestions and ideas on the best way to handle meetings as your business – and number of employees - grows. You’ll also get the chance to ‘listen in’ on a Tropical MBA/Dynamic Circle team meeting involving Dan, Ian, Jessica and Alex – and hear about Dan and Ian’s very different styles of management.

Many entrepreneurs have dabbled with "smart drugs", also known as "cognitive enhancers" or "nootropics" but few have studied them as closely as Jesse Lawler. In his weekly podcast Smart Drugs Smarts, Jesse talks to range of specialists and academics about different aspects of brain chemistry, including the effects of smart drugs. In this week’s TMBA episode, Jesse shares what he’s learned about the effects of Smart Drugs, things to consider when using them, and their appeal for all ages.

In this week’s episode Dan and Ian invite you to share in one of Bossman’s many interests: 3D printing. This technology has been around for a while - mostly used by designers and engineers to conceptualize and test prototypes. But, as 3D printers become cheaper and more sophisticated, might it begin to revolutionize not only the world of retail but also DIY? What are the opportunities and potential pitfalls for entrepreneurs? Lawyers like Alan Rothenbuecher are already advising firms on how to handle the growing number of IP issues that crop up in relation to 3D printing.TMBA also talks to one of the co-founders of The Pirate Bay, Tobias Andersson, about why he thinks 3D printing is going to have the same impact on design as file-sharing sites have had on the music business.

Starting out as an entrepreneur can be scary – but it’s exhilarating and rewarding too. In the first part of series of episodes about the ‘different stages of the entrepreneurial journey’, Dan and Ian revisit some advice they gave Kiri Masters who, in 2013, was still in her day job as a highly successful corporate player whilst struggling to set up a business that would give her the lifestyle and kind of satisfaction that she felt she was missing. What advice did Dan and Ian give Kiri? Did she follow it? What's happening with her business today?

One of the major issues that location independent entrepreneurs, who spend time outside their home country, grapple with is tax. Let’s be honest: we’re all looking for ways to pay less of that! Phil Hodgen is a leading lawyer in this field, advising his clients on the relative advantages of foreign earned income exclusion, acquiring overseas residency or even, in some cases, expatriation. In this week’s show we bring you advice that could save you thousands of dollars. And yes, we’re talking dollars. This guidance is mostly applicable to U.S. citizens but Phil also talks about general principles that other nationalities will find useful too.

A few weeks ago we spoke with Jeff Pecaro. Jeff is starting a productized service business and he offered to let us follow along with his journey on the show. This week we are catching up with him to find out how his business has progressed and he has managed to weather the storm of some tough criticism.

Is it possible to go from being successful blogger to writing a book that tops the Internet charts within the space of a year? In this week’s episode Dan talks to Taylor Pearson, an author who has done exactly that. Tune in and find out how.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.