TMBA Podcast Episodes
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TMBA 284: Why Entrepreneurs are Flocking to Spain this Summer
Not all of us came out of the womb wanting to start a business. Some of us were attracted to the personal agency and the freedom of being an entrepreneur. This week's guests all have a few things in common. They all had this similar dream of the freedom that comes from quitting their jobs and starting their own businesses, and all three of them have chosen Spain as their home for that journey this summer. Barcelona has recently become kind of a hotbed for the entrepreneurial community. I reached out to Chris Reynolds, Cristina Ansbjerg and Robert Brandl to get some insider info about what it's like to live in the city and why they have all fallen in love with it.
TMBA 283: Ways the Wealthy Do it Differently
This weekend Ian and I shared the room with 30 high-net worth individuals. We held our first ever wealth event for some of the most successful listeners of this podcast. It's not very often that you get to hang out with so many interesting and successful people in one weekend, so we've decided share some of the lessons that we learned from that event on this week's show. We'll be talking about how we got the idea for this event, why this is my favorite event I have ever attended, and the nine things that surprised us the most coming out of this conference.
TMBA 282: Starting With Productized Services: Learn a Skill, Package It For Sale, Then Scale
A few weeks ago we did a show called "An Episode For Those Who Need a Business Idea". We got so much great feedback from that episode, and looking back at it, we realized it has become part of a series that we have developed about productized services. This episode is the natural progression of that series. The first person that I thought of when I wanted to continue that discussion was Tristan King from ShopifyNinjas.com. Tristan has a lot of thoughts on how you can build productized marketing services and scale them. He will also be sharing his view and advice for getting started from somebody in their third year of a productized services business, and a few of his business ideas that he believes could be winners for the TropicalMBA listeners looking to start a business.
TMBA 281: An Episode For Those Who Like to Read
I love books. I love to read and I know that many of you do too. This week we're going to have a simple, fun episode where we talk about our favorite books. I will be sharing five books that I think people might enjoy reading for inspiration or pleasure and our good friend Taylor Pearson will be sharing five timeless business books that he believes are worth reading more than once. If you are looking for new stuff to read, this is the episode for you.
TMBA 280: How Our Software Startup Died a Slow Quiet Death
In April 2013, Ian and I cut a deal with Jesse Lawler to found ValetUp.com. Nearly two years later we find ourselves on the other side of the looking glass wondering what went wrong. In today's episode, we're going to talk about what we learned from that experience, how we failed, and what we are going to do about it in the future. We're also going to hear from Jesse about his new project, PodcastPop, and how it is going to benefit podcasters who are looking to build a more organic connection with their audience.
TMBA 279: Can Your Mastermind Offer Insurance Against Failure?
Today's episode is all about facilitating high level masterminds, and nobody does it better than Taylor Pearson. It can be hard to figure out what it takes to succeed. Masterminds put you in a position to surround yourself with people who have common goals and will not allow you to fail. This is old school block-and-tackle business strategy. We're talking about what is important to consider when structuring a mastermind, success stories from the groups that Taylor has spearheaded and some of the most useful tools for organizing an effective mastermind group.
TMBA 278: An Episode For Those Who Need a Business Idea
Back when Ian and I were working a 9-to-5, we were dreaming up all kinds of ideas to start a business. Over the years, we've discovered what we like to call the Business Idea Paradox; When you need these ideas the most, they are the hardest to come by. Ian and I have decided to donate some of our business ideas that we don't have the time or resources to pursue. We've also reached out to our listeners who have donated some of their own business ideas for this episode and shared their thoughts about what kinds of businesses they would really like to see.
TMBA 277: How Does Location Independence Affect Relationships and Families?
I'm in the beautiful South Philippines today and in this very location last year, I met today's guests: Paul and Becky Kortman. The Kortmans are a big family with a unique story. Paul runs his own digital marketing agency called Connex Social. Last year they sold their house and 90% of their belongings and decided to hit the road. They ended up taking 25 flights and visiting over 30 different locations. We're gonna talk about how location independence effects family, how it effects relationships and how it effects business. We'll also discuss how they rebounded from losing 90% of their revenue, and what the experience was like traveling with a six person family around the world.
TMBA 276: Building Startups When You've Got Little Time and No Money
Do you think it is possible to launch a scale-able start-up in just one week's time with no money invested? That might sound too good to be true, but Dan Norris has not only articulated an approach to this in his book, "The 7 Day Startup", he has also used it to grow his own business, WPcurve to close to $25K in monthly recurring revenue it his first year, and nearly 50K in monthly recurring revenue now. On this week's episode, I've invited him on to the show to share his unique insight about being an author, running a services business and how the story of his seven day startup has managed to become so successful.
TMBA 275: How Should an Entrepreneur Invest $50,000?
Bossman and I have taken the last few weeks off to recharge and prepare for our upcoming Singapore Event. We're back from our short break and ringing in the new year by discussing a question that Marc Cuban asked recently: What should the average investor do with $50,000? We'll dissect some of the ideas he proposed about financial investments, talk about how the location-independent entrepreneur can put them to good use, and explain exactly what makes our upcoming gathering of entrepreneurs such a unique sharing environment.
TMBA 274: When You’ve Built Yourself a Job Instead of a Business
With the help of our friend Taylor Pearson from TaylorPearson.me, we are continuing our 5 part series. The first episode was about making that first $1,000 of income. This episode is all about the next phase of a business, where you are starting to make a living, but you're trying to figure out how to scale that and turn it into a real asset. We'll talk about how we got out of our jobs and built a business, how long we were living broke for and the fundamental difference between building yourself a job and a business.
TMBA 273: Stories From a Remote CEO
We are talking about what it means to be a remote CEO. This episode is essentially going to be story time with Ian. We discuss what it is like to leave the office for extended periods of time, and some essential mindset stuff that goes into being a successful remote CEO. We also talk about how our portable business has been able to grow five times year over year with Bossman and I living away from the office, and the dissect the steps that it takes to step away from your business and let it work for you.
TMBA 272: Is It Getting Harder to Grow a Successful Business Selling Info Products?
This week I've invited Shayna from EspressoEnglish.net to share how she was able to build a successful info product business that allows her to live anywhere in the world with just a laptop and $1,500 in capital. We're gonna talk about how Shayna drives hundreds of thousands of visitors to her site every month, how she turns those visitors into leads and customers, how she produces her info products and how she values them. We'll also talk quite a bit about lifestyle and her thoughts on the future of the digital nomad movement.
TMBA 271: Understanding and Optimizing For Multiple Currencies: A Conversation with Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie from Kalzumeus.com has been one of my favorite bloggers for over half of a decade. Patrick has a storied history of writing long-form pieces about the experiences of starting bootstrap software businesses, and is an expert at optimizing for non-cash currencies. In this week's episode we dig deep into Patrick's business philosophy, including how he has been able to build a powerhouse blog that is followed by some of the most influential people in the industry. We also talk about his expertise around conversion optimization and email marketing, how not to suck at giving conference speeches, and Patrick's experience as a long-term expat in Japan.
TMBA 270: A Roundtable Discussion on Apprentices, Mentoring, and Team Building
Our old friend and former team member Taylor Pearson from TaylorPearson.me has come by this week to help us have a broad, round-table conversation about team building. We talk about the ways that Ian and I have done it, and Taylor shares some insider insight from having been on our team. We also answer a question from a young listener about whether he should be learning a skill set like SEO or diving headfirst into his own business.
TMBA 269: Branding is About Relationships Not Recognition
TropicalMBA is a podcast dedicated to the growing movement of location independent entrepreneurs. Every week, location independent entrepreneurs all over the world will leave us questions and comments in our voicemail. This week, we are answering a whole bunch of those voicemails, including questions about why you should be starting or joining a mastermind group, some of the best things about being an expatriate and why branding is really about building relationships with your clients.
TMBA 268: Getting More Out of Conferences - “Breakfast is a Big Deal”
Bossman and I are in Tokyo this week following our annual DC BKK Conference in Thailand. We are gonna be recapping how the event went, and reminiscing about some of our favorite speakers. We're also going to be talking about what we've learned about throwing events, what we are planning to do in the future and sharing our advice for people that are looking to get the most out of all these upcoming conferences.
TMBA 267: The Tao of the Hustle
In the aftermath of DC BKK, The Bossman hopped a plane this week on his way to Tokyo, so we've decided to re-visit one of our favorite episodes of all time. I was a little hesitant about this episode when we first published it three years ago, but since that time, we have received a lot of feedback about how important this episode has been to our listeners. This episode came at a time when we had our first $100,000 month, and we still stand behind these 6 key principles that make up our Tao of the Hustle.
TMBA 266: Growing Productized Services Businesses
Bossman and I are in Bangkok, gearing up for DC BKK, and we are chatting with our friend Jacob Puhl this week. Jacob is one of our speakers here for the event, and he has built a really unique and successful productized service business, geared primarily toward the dental industry. He really has a lot of valuable knowledge on how to scale a business. We're gonna be talking about how to overcome the complications of investing in and expanding a service business and the five ways to turn your services business into a salable asset.
TMBA 265: Visiting China - Why Entrepreneurs Travel to the Canton Fair
The Canton Fair is taking place this October, so I was really happy to run into my old friend Matt Kowolak from HighCappin.com. Matt has been living as an entrepreneur in China for ten years, and he is the person I go to whenever I have a question about the country. We chat it up about the history of the fair, what it feels like to attend such a historic trade show and what kind of opportunities exist there. He also shares a broad overview of what living in China as an expatriate is like and how to take advantage of their entrepreneurial culture.