TMBA Podcast Episodes
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TMBA 148 (LBP129) - ROUND 1 - Business Idea Smackdown - Dan “Coconut Crusher” Andrews vs. Ian “Benjamins by Birth” Schoen
Dan’s bean bag sitting in Bali, intermittently nuking himself off the internet to make sure he gets his book taken care of on time while Ian’s in San Diego taking care of business like a boss. After getting some inspiration from the Adsense Flippers, Dan and Ian decided to go for a knock down drag out four-rounder this week. They asked Taylor, the new guy on the team, to put together 4 unique business premises. Dan and Ian come up with unique solutions to each premise and it’s up to you guys to decide who came out on top.
TMBA 147 (TTR20) - What Is the Best Place in Southeast Asia for Internet Entrepreneurs?
This week I totally geek out on one of my favorite topics: how do various locations in Southeast Asia stack up to each other for internet entrepreneurs? During the conversation I share a lot of anecdotes from my last 5 months on the road, along with a few new pieces of information I’ve picked up along the way. Hope you enjoy and curious to hear your thoughts as always.
TMBA 146 (LBP128) - Manipulating the Success Script
Dan’s still in Bali grinding out his first book while Ian’s back in San Diego working on taking the product business to the next level. Inspired by a talk Cal Newport gave, Dan and Ian reveal that the script to success, however you define it. While success is something each person decides on, there is a script that everyone can follow to get themselves there. With all the talk in the blogosphere about “passion,” the true story about achieving success and happiness seems to be a little more complex.
TMBA 145 (TTR19) - The 2% Fallacy and 10 Business Red Flags
I’m back in Bali hoping to take advantage of the inspiring scenery and lifestyle to get a ton of work done. I was excited to hop on the mic solo-style this week and address those of you who plan to spend the weekend hustling away. In this week’s show I talk about some digital nomad hot spots as well as 10 business red flags that prevent you and your business from achieving maximum velocity.
TMBA 144 (LBP127) - Generating Wealth and Re-Considering Retirement for Entrepreneurs
Dan and Ian are homeward bound. Ian just got back San Diego and Dan’s headed to Bali for November to write his first book. Both still coming down from the high and energy of DCBKK, they wanted to tackle a tough question on the real meaning of wealth and entrepreneurship. Everyone knows that society has certain scripts and most people blindly assume the numbers support those. Dan and Ian sit down to look at the facts of a 20 year trajectory for a professional job vs. an entrepreneur and then look at how they and their network got there.
TMBA 143 (TTR18) - 5 Media Created Distortions About Successful Internet Ventures
The CEO-yeah is heading back to the good ole’ U.S. of A. and I’m heading up to Chiang Mai to do a little scouting and see if it could be worthy of being the next TMBA compound. In this week’s episode, we get called out on our Modern Cat Furniture business by listener Shayna and invoke the “do as we say, not as we do” maxim. We reveal our 3 step process on how to know when it’s time to hire and the differences between what we do, small businesses, and startups.
TMBA 142 (LBP126) - Gaming Google Search Results - What's Working and What's Getting Killed
After the first annual Dynamite Circle DCBKK Conference in Bangkok, Dan and Ian blew it out Bangkok-style. But first, they sat down with SEO guru Travis Jamison from Smash Digital to discuss some of the latest Google algorithm updates and how Travis is adjusting. Lots of site owners have been left scrambling after the Google Penguin updates and refreshes over the past months, not to mention the Exact Match Domain update that rolled out a few weeks ago. While the rest of the world screams “SEO is Dead,” Travis reveals how he’s still crushing it with top rankings.
TMBA 141 (LBP125) - How to Avoid your Entrepreneurial Blindspots - Dan's Stick-On Mirror Theory
After two weeks in Puerto Galera with the October TMBA session, Dan and Ian celebrated Dan’s birthday in style at the classic Filippino restaurant TGIFriday’s and then curled up under a staircase in the Mall of Asia to bring this episode to you. Having done three sessions with various TMBA participants and being asked weekly similar questions from folks starting their own businesses, they’ve come to notice some consistent things that happen with every new business owner. The good news is that these are generally fixable, you just need to know how to adjust your mirrors.
TMBA 140 (LBP124) - How Marketing Beats Sales and Why Capacity Is A Number With James Schramko
This week Dan jumped on the phone with the man, the myth, the Aussie legend in content marketing and helping customers online, James Schramko of Super Fast Business and one of Dan’s new favorite podcasts Freedom Ocean. A super-sized episode that caused Dan to spend the past week to say to Ian “Did I tell you what Schramko told me? Have I told you about my interview with Schramko? James has this baller way of dealing with that.” Needless to say Dan and Ian’s mancrushes run high – after listening to the interview you’ll develop a mind-crush too.
TMBA 139 (LBP123) - Getting To Five Years On A Business Trajectory
Five years ago (October 2nd, 2007 to be exact) Dan and Ian were sitting at brunch when Dan got a notification on his original iPhone that they had gotten paid for their first product sale. Starting that day they set their sights on a business trajectory that has taken them five years, multiple product lines, 10+ employees, world-wide travel destinations, a publishing venture, private mastermind community, and top iTunes podcast into the future.
TMBA 137 (LBP120) - How To Profit From In-Person Events With Rob Walling
Dan and Ian are both in the States and working on their next big thing - the Dynamite Circle Conference in Bangkok in October. Planning conferences is a lot of work that you never even thought of until the hotel was asking what kind of breakfast menus you would prefer during your third break on the second day. Who has a breakfast menu during their third break?! They decided to call in a pro and chat it up with Rob Walling, the founder of MicroConf (The Conference For Self-Funded Startups.)
TMBA 136 (LBP119) - Bro Pricing And The Most Important Model In Online Business
In this episode Dan & Ian tackle this frustrating issue that plagues many an information product or intangible service provider: My biggest question about business lately has been pricing. I have no idea whether or not I'm charging my customers too much, too little, etc. Head down and pencils up - this episode is full of pricing insights and strategies you need to have a successful online business, including: The Most Important Model In Online Business
TMBA 135 (LBP118) - 5 No-Time Products And Questions From The Silent Majority
Dan and Ian spent the past week working diligently to poll the LBP audience and find the deepest darkest unasked listener questions. They ended up with some great questions and requests for advice from the LBP community, many of which were from listeners they'd never heard from before. Which made Dan grin, cause he loves you silent majority folks
TMBA 134 (LBP117) - Flexing Your Hustle Muscle And Hacking A Job
Dan and Ian spent a fair amount of time (ok...they spent a session) learning Crossfit from Joe Bauer in the Philippines during the recent Tropical MBA session. After they managed to drag themselves back to the microphone, they realized there was some techniques to work out on the LBP.The thing with starting a biznass is that it isn't all rainbows and puppies. There's some heavy lifting that you have to do to get that baby off the ground, and we're not talking reps with a tropical umbrella drink. Sure, everyone wants the 4-Hour Work Week, but you gotta put in the work to make that happen.Wanna Flex Your Hustle Muscle And Hack A Job?
TMBA 133 (LBP116) - How To Choose A Profitable Niche That You Can Love on Summer Marketing Mashup
It's a special podcast here at the LBP. Dan and Ian are joined for a bonus-length episode as they host the Summer Marketing Mashup guys (Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income, Jason Van Orden & Jeremy Frandsen from Internet Business Mastery, and Tim Conley from Foolish Adventure) to talk shop on niche selection. So sit back, grab your beverage of choice and a notebook (or Evernote), and check out the final installment in the Summer Marketing Mashup series.
TMBA 132 (LBP115) - The Most Expensive (But Profitable) Marketing Strategy In Your Arsenal
Marketing is a key piece of the biznass conversation. How do you choose? Some are quick and dirty, some are putting in for some long ball. How do you choose? Dan and Ian went back to their notebooks and online archives (thank you GMail!) and sorted through to find the most profitable marketing strategy they had ever implemented. Only problem? It's also their most expensive. But when you're a serious lifestyle business baller, you realize that sometimes you've gotta make the investment of resources to get the explosion of customers.
TMBA 131 (TTR17) - How We Increased Email Subscribers 257% By Making it Harder to Opt-in
How does a lazy blogger increase their email subscription rate by 257% and in the process get an automatic sales machine working for them and generating sales in their sleep? Well– you could hire John McIntyre— but for those of you who have teams or willing to do it yourself, we invited John on the show to get the details on how he did it. It’s also time for us to offer another Tropical MBA internship here at Badladz resort in Puerto Galera, Mindoro (sorry, so much for the “no more interns” thing), so it’s good timing to ask John about his experience here in the Philippines plus the business and skills he’s been building over the past year.
TMBA 130 (TTR16) - Becoming a Mini-Mogul
Today Ian and I are joining you from Puerto Galera, Philippines. We found a few minutes away from the events here at the Tropical MBA to discuss a topic that’s been on our minds lately: How do we frame up this new style of multi-national small business entrepreneurship, and what are some related business opportunities? A lot of people have been talking about this trend lately, we dug up this article to serve as the basic structure for this episode. We believe the opportunities to create services and products for people just like us– global-thinking lifestyle entrepreneurs– is massive.
TMBA 129 (LBP114) - Sometimes We Are The Champions, Sometimes We Are Awful
It’s been a really rough week for Dan and Ian. This is mostly due to the fact that they arrived in the Philippines to meet with 14 bright eyed participants of our August TMBA Session and it was a bit of a challenge. Not because of the participants. Instead they encountered a slight typhoon wreaking havoc on Manila, Batangas City & Pier, Mindoro, Puerto Galera, and Badladz Resort. In other words, they were surrounded by the storm. What should have been a fun 3-hour tour of the Philippines to get to the resort turned in to an adventure of epic proportions. But everyone arrived safe and sound, amped up on the adrenaline of their adventure, with huge grins on their faces and dates with their beds. Which is to say, in true internet meme fashion, sometimes owning a business isn’t all double rainbows and Tiger Blood. Sometimes, you are killin’ it and sometimes you are struggling to get it all done, through some pretty adverse situations and circumstances.
TMBA 128 (TTR15) - Is Starting a Personal Blog Hazardous to Your Entrepreneurial Health?
We are back with our weekend podcast with the hopes of giving you a little fuel for your projects over the next few days. Today I discuss with the CEOh-yeah and issue we’ve brought up a few times before. One of the biggest questions we get asked is: should I start a personal blog for networking purposes? I don’t think these are benign decisions and I take this question very seriously. When you are just getting started and need to find strategic levers to get as much energy channeled into your business as possible, and your decision on when and how to blog or otherwise put content onto the interwebs can have a big impact on your future.