TMBA Podcast Episodes
With the TMBA in your ear, you’ll no longer have to grow your business alone. Subscribe to follow along to hear about the ways we help entrepreneurs scale successful businesses.
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We publish a new show every Thursday morning, 8AM EST
TMBA 42 (LBP42) - [Use at Your Own Risk] Develop a Revenue Stream with the PIVOT Method
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 product we developed using what we call PIVOT: Position, Iterate, Volley, Outsource, and Time. If that sounds like a big fat put-on, it kind of is, but we had fun using it as a structure to talk about the way we got this done.
TMBA 41 (LBP41) - Two Four Hour Work Week Fallacies
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.
TMBA 40 (LBP40) - How to Create a 100 Dollar Information Product in 48 Hours
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 ground up. We are hoping you find it entertaining and perhaps even useful. We are also newbies at a lot of this stuff, so we are hoping to get some help from you guys as well!
TMBA 39 (LBP39) - 4 Tips for Deciding if a Market is Worth Attacking
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 listeners would be a HUGE asset to making sure we do things right.
TMBA 38 (LBP38) - How to Lose Weight and Make Money Online
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 plenty of business reasons why he might be doing what he’s doing or he could just be busy like the rest of us, but we thought it was fun to discuss a website on air so we broke the rule.
TMBA 37 (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 alone. I just proofed parts of this episode and there are even things in there I could phrase a totally different way or see from a different angle– I’m sure there are some things in there we are just flat WRONG about… that’s gonna happen a lot. I’m cool with being wrong– its way better than not publishing a podcast.
TMBA 36 (LBP36) - Offices are So Old School
One of this year’s big experiements was starting a brick and mortar office here in the Philippines. We’ve also decided that scaling into more “lifestyle” focused internships is a much more effective way to grow our business in the short term than radically increasing our overhead and support stuff. So its not that the office was outright BAD, its just that everyone made big sacrifices to make it happen, and most of them hit home where it hurt most. We were having less FUN and spending more time on stuff like commutes and pushing ourselves to work outside of our natural rhythms. The key thing here is going to bat. We change our minds about what is working in our business very often, and to me thats a sign that we are pushing in as many ways as possible to look for ways to grow our business and have more fun.
TMBA 35 (LBP35) - 4 Things You Should Never Do in Your Business
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!
TMBA 34 (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. 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 hear from the gurus. We dedicate a full 7 minutes plus to Ian’s first run at a used car guide. For many entrepreneurs, transport makes up WAY TO MUCH of your yearly budget, and Ian is an absolute ninja at keeping those costs in line. If you are a car owner, we are hoping his guide to budget used car buying can be of some use.
TMBA 33 (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.
TMBA 32 (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.
TMBA 31 (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.
TMBA 30 (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.
TMBA 29 (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.
TMBA 28 (LBP28) - How to Visualize Your Target Revenue and Find Your Five Hours
Dan and Ian talk about visualization techniques and finding work that you're passionate about.
TMBA 27 (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.
TMBA 26 (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!
TMBA 25 (LBP25) - How to Make Money Online
Hey everyone, I think a lot about the make money online niche. I have tons of friends who are making BANK in that space and they are providing real value to the marketplace. There are so many folks talkin' smack but I'm not really sure all that is necessary. I weight in here with my thoughts and a few quick announcements about the podcast.
TMBA 24 (LBP24) - Why Chris Ducker Wants to Manage 200 Employees from His Laptop, and What it Takes to Make It
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, We Live 2 Care Group.
TMBA 23 (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 my help 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.