Starting a business can be extremely emotionally difficult. Dan and Ian are very familiar with the personal toll that the process can take on an aspiring entrepreneur. A lot of times starting a business means that you are broke, or relying on your friends, family or significant other to support you. For some, that can lead to stress and even depression. Christopher Sutton knows these feelings all too well. A few years ago, Christopher wrote a blog post about what it was like to experience the emotional roller coaster of starting his own business, Easy Ear Training. On this week's episode, you will hear Christopher talk about what that experience was like, as well has how he found support through this podcast and our community of listeners in the Dynamite Circle.

A year ago, Dan and Ian published one of the most-listened to episodes of this podcast, titled 7 Things to Consider When Selling Your Business. In that episode, they detailed all of the ups and downs of the sale process, as well as some anonymous profiles of the people who were putting in offers and kicking tires. On this week's episode, you will hear directly from Tino Sage, the "CEO Sally" who purchased their manufacturing and import business. She'll explain what she was looking for in a business, what the process of buying our business was like, and how things have been since she took over the reins.

Like all entrepreneurs, Dan and Ian have fantasized about putting their ideas out on the internet and making millions of dollars. Today's guest has actually done that. Simon Payne is the co-founder of Leadpages, the industry standard software in creating landing pages for websites. Dan and Ian originally met Simon in the Philippines, around the time that they were forming the Dynamite Circle. In this episode, you'll hear how that original meetup influenced Simon, as well as the true story of how Leadpages was formed, and what the future has in store for Simon.

Email has been an all pervading part of entrepreneurial life for the last few decades. These days, Dan and Ian have mixed feelings about email in general. In exploring how to step up some of their strategies for dealing with it, they decided to talk to someone who is always happy to open his inbox. Chris Van Patten of Van Patten Media is just that guy. Chris loves working with email, and he’s not afraid to share his feelings about it. In this episode, you’re going to hear some approaches to handling email and why, sometimes, it’s ok to give yourself permission not to respond.

About a year ago, Dan and Ian were working on their annual DC BKK event in Bangkok, and they were finding themselves strapped for time. They weren't putting the kind of resources or time into this show that the would have liked to, and they realized that the enjoyment that they were getting out of this podcast had started to wane. It was around that time that they decided they needed to drastically step up the production level of the show. They put out a call for a new producer, which was answered by a former BBC producer named Jane Beresford. This week's episode is the story of what has been going on behind the scenes of the Tropical MBA podcast since then. You'll hear about what led to the decision to increase production, and a step by step instruction on how they were able to take this show to the next level.

Dan and Ian have been talking a lot on the TropicalMBA lately about investments, and those conversations have led them down a lot of interesting paths. Most notably, that curiosity has led them to explore the future of cryptocurrency, and in particular, Bitcoin. What really compelled us to talk about the Bitcoin story on this show is the strange and incredible cast of characters involved. No one knows that story or those characters better than Nathaniel Popper, a New York Times business reporter and the author of Digital Gold. On this week's episode, you'll hear Nathaniel share the fascinating details of the history of Bitcoin, and the process of shaping a book based on so many of those crazy stories.

One of the recurring themes on this show is freedom. The freedom to make personal choices. The freedom to travel. The freedom to create a business that allows you to live the lifestyle you choose to live. Dan and Ian have spoken to many people about what that freedom means, but perhaps Esther Jacobs has the most profound story about freedom that has ever been shared on this show. Esther is one of the youngest people in the Netherlands ever to be honored with the distinction of knighthood. Despite that event, Esther has a very unique story to share about how she was disowned by the very same country that named her a knight. Esther has an unbelievable story, and it could carry serious implications for digital nomads all around the world.

It's been almost a year to the date since Dan and Ian sold their business. They don't regret the decision, but in the time since then, the two of them have explored a lot of "what ifs" in their head. A lot of listeners have approached them recently who are considering selling their business as well. On this week's episode, you'll hear some of the questions that listeners approached them with, as well as five reasons why selling your business might not be the right idea for you.

Last week Dan and Ian talked about how they hosted a couple hundred entrepreneurs in Barcelona for the DCBCN conference. A lot of those entrepreneurs shared their stories on stage, which is an intimidating task. Andres Zuleta of Boutique Japan was one of those people. Andres started a business that sells boutique travel packages to people who want to visit Japan. He called in to this podcast and left a voicemail not too long ago and today Boutique Japan is on target to make $1.3 million in revenue. We invited him on to the show this week to talk about how telling his story has helped him make sense of the ride that he has been on.

Dan and Ian are hot off the heels of the DCBCN conference they hosted this week, where over 200 entrepreneurs gathered in Barcelona to participate in a series of dinners, workshops, parties and even bike rides. On this week's episode, they'll be talking about some of the trends that they are seeing in the lifestyle business space, as well as five things that they took away from the overall DCBCN experience.

Being an entrepreneur isn't all wine and roses. Frankly, a lot of it can be described in one word: 'meh'. On this week's episode, Dan and Ian are going to be sharing five of the most tedious and monotonous things to expect when running a business. These are five things that most entrepreneurs dread dealing with, and the day-to-day experiences that aspiring entrepreneurs can look forward to when starting their own business.

On today's episode, Dan and Ian are going to speaking with Paula Pant. Back when Dan was experimenting with renting a place on AirBNB, he stumbled upon Paula's blog at AffordAnything.com. She is incredibly transparent in her business model, demonstrating how she created a real estate portfolio that provides her with cash flow every month. You'll hear Paula share her story about how she started from scratch to build a successful collection of rental properties.

This show has always been about finding success in your business and your lifestyle. We've talked about lifestyle in a lot of different ways, but one portion of our lifestyle that is so important, that we have rarely touched upon on this show is our health. On this week's episode, Dan and Ian are diving into a topic of health discussion that is as contentious as it is important: what we should be eating. Dan is fascinated by diets, and he has experimented with a plethora of them. He recently decided to go on a search for the greatest diet in the world. On that search, he discovered the work of Dr. Michael Greger M.D., the founder of NutritionFacts.org. Dr. Greger's unique and inspired approach to nutrition is something that we believe every lifestyle designer needs to hear.

One of the fastest ways to gain freedom from a location or a 9-to-5 job is to sell your skill set and your time as a freelancer. When you do that, you can create problems that might not rear their head for years. On this week's episode, Dan and Ian are speaking to Russ Perry from Design Pickle. He began his entrepreneurial career doing just that, and when we first heard from him in 2014, he was in the process of dissolving his first business and starting from square one. In less than two years, Design Pickle now has 20 full-time employees and just last month, they billed 90k in recurring revenue. On this show, you'll hear all about that journey, as well as a pretty in-depth discussion about our collective affinity for delicious pickles.

Dan and Ian have been speaking about the lifestyle of the Location-Independent entrepreneur on this podcast for over six years. During that time, they've found that people all over the internet tend to glorify this movement, and why wouldn't they? It's exciting to be a part of. On the other hand, there are very few people online who are talking about the challenges of being a digital nomad. Mark Manson and Stacey Herbert have both traveled the world as location independent entrepreneurs and have recently decided to put down roots for the first time in years. On this episode, you'll hear them share their thoughts and experiences on what some of the biggest downsides to the nomadic lifestyle are.

On one of our recent episodes, Dan and Ian spoke with Joe Wirbick about some of their options for managing their money since they have sold their business. That episode elicited a very passionate response from our listeners. We got a ton of feedback from some really smart people about that episode, so we decided to do a follow up show. On this week's episode, you'll hear some specific feedback from our friend Laura Roeder, as well as Dan and Ian's feelings on managing their own money now that they have heard so many opinions on the subject.

If you have been listening to our show for a while, you will recognize this week's guest from an episode we did about a year and a half ago called "Is It Getting Harder to Grow a Successful Business Selling Info Products?". That episode ended up being one of the most popular episodes of this show, so Dan and Ian decided to invite Shayna of Espresso English back onto the program to follow up with her story. Shayna will be talking about a range of new topics, including pricing, positioning and marketing info products in today's entrepreneurial landscape.