On today’s show, GrowthHit’s Jim Huffman talks to Dan about the pros and cons of running a successful agency, and how he’s recently been encouraging and enabling his team to create new products via an internal ‘startup studio incubator’. Interestingly, he’s done this, in part, to incentivise people, and offer a creative and rewarding work environment in this increasing competitive job market:

‘Side hustles’ are a long running theme on this show: those ‘weekends and evenings’ projects that many entrepreneurs have in their back pockets. Many don’t work out but when one does, it’s a great opportunity to run with something which has the possibility to evolve to the next level. But how do you decide when that tipping point is?

Back by popular demand, Dan and Kyla Gardner blow the dust off their bookshelves, and fire up their Kindle and Audible libraries to share some of their favorite recent reads. In this episode, they’ll be talking about what sustained them through the long months of COVID containment. And Kyla also shares her experiences of writing fiction under her pen name Kyla Sharp.

Affiliate Marketing businesses have been around way longer than this podcast, and it’s a model that receives its fair share of criticism, especially of those selling ‘courses on how to sell courses’ on the subject. However, one thing is for sure: thousands of entrepreneurs continue to support their families from income generated by affiliate marketing.

The ‘AntiWork Movement’ has been with us for decades but, through the pandemic, it’s gained a new traction over at the online discussion forum ‘Reddit’, where the r/antiwork subreddit group (slogan: “Unemployment for all, not just the rich!”) has over 1.7 million subscribers. Just recently, a controversial media interview by one of the moderators caused the thread to be temporarily locked.

Tiny Seed co-founder Rob Walling joins Dan to share insights about why bootstrapped businesses, particularly Software as a Service (SaaS), are becoming increasingly desirable to investors, partly due to the ‘downside protection’ they offer. They also discuss the pros and cons of serving ‘two-sided marketplaces’ and why Rob has recently updated his ‘Stair Step Approach’ to entrepreneurship:

In this week’s episode Dan and Ian respond to some listener questions, thoughts and comments, including: managing relationships within a team as it grows larger, some updates about Dynamite Jobs, and what’s involved in running masterminds and creating a community:

Productized or Software as a Service? A hot topic often discussed on TMBA. Of course, there’s no right or wrong answer but on today’s show Brian Casel talks to Dan about the factors that contributed to him changing from one to the other by selling Audience Ops and starting ZipMessage and also the different challenges of the two:

For our first episode of the New Year Dan talks to one of our favorite writers in the investment space, Sam Dogen, author of Financial Samurai. Started in 2009, just as he was trying to dig his way out of losing 35% of his net worth due to the global financial crisis, Sam has been discussing investment strategies on his blog ever since.But ‘Financial Samurai’ is about so much more than that. In this episode Dan and Sam cover the importance of ‘parlay’ in your career, the downsides of ‘Financial Independence, Retire Early’, how he chooses topics to write about, and much more.

2021 has been a landmark year for this show, and for entrepreneurs all around the globe.Though the Covid pandemic has lingered on, we have seen borders slowly start to open up and digital nomads finally start to become nomadic once more.We even closed out the year by connecting with listeners of this show at our Dynamite Circle Holiday Party in Austin last week, the first event of its kind in the United States in more than two years.Through it all, we have been fortunate to talk to some incredibly captivating entrepreneurs on this podcast in 2021 and to hear their stories of resilience, innovation, turmoil, and triumph.

This week's guest has done something that so many entrepreneurs aspire to do: they have turned a bespoke creative shop into a truly successful internet business.Lisa Norman is the co-founder of Authentic Leather Patch Co. Together with her partner Ian, they have been manufacturing custom leather patches for clients around the US, which they stitch onto a variety of products.We personally love their hats, which are consistently the most sought-after swag at our Dynamite Circle events.Their story is not your typical "4-Hour Workweek" startup tale. What started in a small shop in California, has turned into a business that generated over 2 million in revenue last year.

We know agencies don't usually get a lot of love on the show but they can be a great way to get started, and an incredible stepping stone in your career.Jodie Cook describes herself as an "athlete, writer, and entrepreneur", and when she says athlete, she means it.She has represented the UK internationally, and she built her agency as a lifestyle business with the intention of complimenting her career as a professional powerlifter.

We've been receiving a lot of requests from our listeners lately for an old-school "talking shop" type of episode.This week, we're doing just that, and in typical Tropical MBA fashion, we are focusing on three specific topics that are top of mind as the year comes to a close.We start the episode off with a discussion about whether we believe we are on the correct path to achieve our goal of building an 8-figure business in the near future.

There is nothing we love more than an entrepreneur who operates outside of convention, and this week's guest is no exception.Tynan is a bestselling author and the creator of CruiseSheet, a website that helps travelers find great deals on cruises. He is also a former Pickup Artist or "PUA", and at one point was a professional gambler.We've been following his terrific blog at Tynan.com for many years, and we're fascinated by his ability to remain ahead of the curve when it comes to social trends on the internet.

Today's episode is all about an emotional journey that was born out of this very podcast, and the unique mental health challenges that entrepreneurs face.Bunty SomRoy took a huge risk back in 2015 when he decided to volunteer at one of our Dynamite Circle events in Bangkok.Since then, he has gone through many stages of the entrepreneurial journey; hustling as a freelancer, taking a job at a startup, and finally running a successful business of his own.It wasn't all wine and roses, though. Bunty encountered some harrowing mental health struggles along the way, and he joins us on the podcast this week to share his very personal story.

When today's guest spoke at our recent event in Mexico City, we were taken by his story because it presented a captivating alternative to the traditional bootstrap business partnerships that we've encountered over the years.Tommy Griffith is the founder of ClickMinded, an online SEO training course, and he has joined us many times over the years to share the story of that business.His story took an unexpected turn when he decided to take on a co-founder after he had already been operating his business for five years.

We are once again reaching into the mailbag this week to answer questions from the Tropical MBA audience.We'll be answering questions that our listeners have submitted on a broad range of topics, including how to stay motivated after your business has met your goals, and how you can better your chances of being selected as a speaker at a conference or a podcast guest.You'll also hear some news updates about our own businesses, our crypto portfolio, and a whole lot more.

It was such a breath of fresh air to see so many entrepreneurs in Mexico City last week at DC MEX, our first in-person event since 2019.We had so much fun catching up with old friends, meeting new ones, exchanging stories, and working together to move forward with our businesses.One of our favorite parts about these events is that we get an up-close-and-personal look as all kinds of exciting trends start to emerge in the community.

Today's podcast is all about a business model that sometimes gets a bad rap on this show: "the agency".We recently bumped into our friend Johnathan Solorzano at MicroConf in Austin, and he had quite a bit to say about the subject.Johnathan is the founder of Solo Media Group, a remote agency of web developers that focuses primarily on Shopify and WooCommerce projects.