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, Smash Digital.

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 in the form of our very first Dynamite Deal.

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.

Today's episode is all about something that Dan and Ian still find magical about entrepreneurship. That is, if you find the right thing to write about, the internet will still allow you to make a great living off of it. This week's guest was able to do exactly that with essentially one blog post. Ryan Robinson is the host of a podcast called The Side Hustle Project and he runs a fantastic blog over at RyRob.com.He recently wrote a piece on his that blog about how to start a blog and make money from it, and that post went on to become the most successful piece of content he has created. On today's show, Ryan joins us to share some great insights about that post, as well as some strategies for creating content that makes money, and some actionable tips for getting started today.

"How important has your network been to your success?" It's generally agreed that the power of having the right connections is absolutely fundamental to growing a business, especially a location independent one. On today's episode, we are sharing some of our own personal approaches to networking. These are useful whether you're going to a conference, picking up a phone, or talking to people in your industry.

A few weeks ago on this podcast, Dan and Ian were talking about some of their biggest pet peeves. In that episode, Ian lamented that the quality of flip flops available for purchase had drastically declined. What happened next should come as no surprise. A few listeners of this show reached out to us to let us know that they had started their own product business manufacturing flip flops. Jeremy Stewart is the co-founder of Hari Mari, which he started with his wife Leila. Hari Mari manufactures and sells premium flip flops across the globe. On today's episode, Jeremy joins us to talk about how their company was founded, how his experience as a political consultant helped Hari Mari grow, and how they were able to go from ground zero to having their products sold in big box retail stores.

Dan and Ian love hearing from listeners of this show. So many times, people reach out to us with thoughtful questions, and one of our favorite things to do is to answer them on this podcast. On today's episode, we are reaching into the mailbag to answer a variety of questions that you submitted to us via email or voicemail. We'll be discussing a broad range of topics including how long it really takes to get your business off the ground, locations to live at the various stages of your entrepreneurial journey, the dilemmas of sustainability, and a whole lot more.

Dan and Ian have seen it time and time again where entrepreneurs can sort of hit a brick wall with their business. But what if the problem doesn't lie with you, but with the type of business you're running? Sometimes people can possess all of the right skills to be successful, but they haven't put themselves in the right situation to succeed. Today's episode is all about "Founder Fit", or the idea that the business you are working on should be the right kind of project that suits your skillset. We'll be discussing four different founder archetypes that we've seen, what their secret weapons are, and which sorts of businesses we believe are best suited for each of these entrepreneurs. We'll also be sharing some of our favorite resources for each type of entrepreneur.

A few months ago, Dan and Ian asked the listeners of this show to respond to a survey about The Tropical MBA Podcast. We wanted to gain a richer understanding of the types of people who are listening to this podcast, so we can continue to create content that is relevant to their interests. We were surprised and delighted not only by the number of people that filled it out but by the types of responses that we received as well. We read every single response that we received from the survey and on today's podcast, we are going to be sharing our thoughts about those survey responses. We'll be discussing your insights, your criticisms, your positive feedback and the data that we learned about the listeners of this show. Stick around to the end to hear a little bit more about how we plan to implement what we learned from that survey in the future of this podcast.

Today's episode is unlike anything else Dan and Ian have ever recorded on this podcast. It all started with a cease and desist letter that we received via email at the beginning of the year. That letter was from an in-house counsel at a very large company and it alleged that The Tropical MBA Podcast was potentially infringing on their trademark. We decided to reach out to our friend Eric Misterovich from Revision Legal. Revision Legal is a law firm that specializes in working with businesses that make money online. Eric joins us on today's podcast to talk a little bit about intellectual property law, as well as the specific cease and desist letter that we received. Make sure to stay tuned until the end of this episode to hear more about the ongoing nature of this situation.

Dan and Ian are excited because they get to spend today's podcast doing one of their favorite things: complaining. This isn't just their everyday grinding of axes, though. On this week's episode, we are taking our own stab at a fun and unique concept popularized by the BBC in a classic television series called "Room 101". The term "Room 101" comes from George Orwell's 1984. In Orwell's fictional world, it was a sort of torture chamber that thought criminals are banished to. In this episode, Dan and Ian will each present three things that they want to complain about, and at the end of the episode, they are going to vote on which terrible thing deserves to be banished to Room 101.

Hosting this podcast has allowed Dan and Ian to meet thousands of entrepreneurs over the last several years. Many of those entrepreneurs have gone on to become very wealthy people, and throughout our conversations with those people, we have found some common threads to the ways that wealthy people behave. One constant we've discovered is that you have to have a strategy for becoming wealthy and that there are several common strategies that people use to varying degrees of success. On today's show, we are going to be talking about five of the most common strategies to get rich that we have seen, which of those strategies resonate with us, and a whole lot more.

Dan and Ian love stories where creative people find success through entrepreneurship. Truthfully, it's not something we have had a chance to talk about much on this podcast, but art and entrepreneurship don't have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, the skillsets can actually be complementary. Today's guest has figured that out herself, as she went from working a 9-to-5 while living with her parents to traveling the world on her own terms. Cat Coquilette is an artist and illustrator who has made a career licensing her artwork and designs through companies like Target, Urban Outfitters, and Bed Bath & Beyond. On today's podcast, Cat joins us to share how she navigated the journey from her childhood bedroom to successful solopreneurship, without sacrificing her creative fulfillment along the way.

On this week's show, Dan and Ian are talking about getting real with yourself about what you need to do to succeed. Very few people are more qualified to talk about that than John Ainsworth. John is the CEO and founder of Data Driven Marketing, which builds, fixes, and optimizes automated sales funnels. Those sales funnels are the mechanisms that many online businesses use to communicate with customers and entice them to buy their products.