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.

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 exploration of what happens when a business partnership ends. You will hear the reasons why Ben and Meryl decided to break up, and how they were able to reach a mutual understanding about buying each other out.

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.

Generally speaking, Dan and Ian aren’t exactly fans of having a physical office. This is due, in large part, to the complications and difficulties that come with renting these kinds of spaces. Today’s guest is going to attempt to change their opinion. Amol Sarva is the founder of Knotel, a startup based in New York City that offers “Headquarters on Demand”. Their model draws inspiration from some practices commonly used in the hospitality industry – and they’ve had some tremendous success.

A recent thread in the Dynamite Circle forum really caught Dan and Ian‘s attention, and seemed to resonate with a great number of people in the community. One of the members introduced the idea of “Imposter Syndrome”, and asked the rest of the community if they ever felt like a fake entrepreneur. We decided to reach out to three of the people who contributed to that discussion. Brendan Tully, Luis Gil, and Conni Biesalski have all joined us on this week’s episode to share some of their struggles with these feelings.

The toughest nut for Dan and Ian to crack over the last few years has been how to make money with your money. How do you successfully invest in small businesses without having to run them on a day-to-day basis? Today's guest has cracked that code. Brent Beshore is the founder and CEO of Adventur.es. Brent has managed to do something that our hosts have dreamed of doing for a long time. He owns a portfolio of different businesses, and he does little to no work in operating them. On this episode, Brent will share how he has built this portfolio and what things he looks for when deciding to purchase a business.

In this episode, you’ll hear from someone who hasn’t just settled on a place but is also considering applying for citizenship there too. Dustin Overbeck is the creator of a company that does website and design for municipalities called TownWeb. On this week’s podcast, you’ll find out why Dustin and his wife decided to leave the Philippines, what factors they had to take into consideration and why, ultimately, they settled on moving their family to Brasov, Romania.

Dan and Ian have talked many times on this podcast about how the best ideas often come from scratching your own itch, or finding problems for solutions that you have experienced. Lately, Dan has had a very specific itch. Email tracking software has really been getting on Dan's nerves these days, so much so that he has even written a recent blog post about how much the industry is upsetting him. Enter Sonny Tulyaganov. Sonny was feeling some of the very same frustrations with email tracking software that Dan has been experiencing, but Sonny decided to do something about it. He developed a browser plugin called UglyMail, which allows you to see who is tracking your email. On this week's show, you'll hear the history of how Sonny developed this plugin, and the startling revelations about just how much of the information in your inbox is at risk.

It’s no secret that Dan and Ian are radio enthusiasts. It’s the reason that they started making this podcast in the first place. They are also interested in learning how others have grown successful businesses through putting their voices on the air and by developing podcasts. One of those people is Jordan Harbinger. Jordan and his co-host A.J. produce a podcast called The Art of Charm, which centers around teaching men how to connect and communicate effectively in both their personal and professional lives.

On today’s show, Dan and Ian have decided to focus on something that has never been done on this podcast. They have interviewed many entrepreneurs over the years, but they have always wanted to document the story of a business. This episode follows the creation of a SaaS product called Splitly: the people who started it, and those who later became involved in its evolution. You’ll hear firsthand accounts from James Andrews, Greg Mercer and Andy Brown.

A short while back, Dan and Ian invited Rob Dix and Rob Bence on to the show to share their knowledge about property investment. During that conversation, the Robs spoke to Ian about a lot more than just investing in property. They have managed to build an empire around their podcast, The Property Podcast, and they have a membership community of over 10,000 people strong. They’ve also built a business that sources and manages properties for clients, many of whom find that service through their show.

A few weeks ago, Dan and Ian published their first episode of a new series on this podcast, where they decided to seek out the answer to a question that every location-independent entrepreneur has struggled with at one point in time: If I can live anywhere in the world, where should that be? On this week's episode, they will be focusing on two nations in Eastern Europe: Hungary and Georgia. Clayton Cornell runs his own lead-generation business online, as well as one of Dan and Ian's longtime favorite blogs called Spartan Traveler. On this podcast, Clayton shares his story about what led him to the capitol of Hungary, Budapest. You'll also hear from Dana Lindahl. Dana has chosen the nation of Georgia as his home base, as his wife has recently started a business there. You'll hear about what that process was like, as well as the entrepreneurial climate in this former Soviet country.

In the past, Dan and Ian have explored what they like to call the "Amazon Gold Rush" on this podcast. Today's show is inspired by someone that Dan recently spent some time with who is knee deep in that movement. Kevin Graham is the founder of Bulk Buy Hosting, but he has also made a considerable amount of money through his own Amazon affiliate business. The Amazon ecosystem is a huge opportunity, and is creating generational wealth for many crafty, young entrepreneurs. Kevin has had this kind of success, and on this episode, we will walk you through every step of how to create one of these businesses and get them ranking in search engines. This is one of the most business-focused episodes we have ever done on this podcast. If you are considering this path in your online business ventures, this is the episode for you.