In this episode, Dan and Ian discuss the credible and reliable ways to build wealth through your business, based on the work of author Keith Cunningham.

The conversation emphasizes building a financially sound foundation for your business by understanding and applying financial principles, planning effectively, managing risks, and maintaining financial discipline.

As Cunningham says, "Building a business without mastering the financial statements is like building a house on the beach. It’s not if the tide will come in, it’s when. And the tide always comes in."

Enjoy this week's episode as you consider how to build a durable business for long-term success!

Dan and Ian explore the concept of power in business and how businesses can transition from being a grind for the owner to having sustainable pricing power.

Derived from the book 'Seven Powers' by Hamilton Helmer, they delve into the idea of cornered resources as a source of power and discuss examples of cornered resources such as patents, unique brain trust, and exclusive partnerships.

You’ll be challenged to consider how you can identify and leverage counter positioning, networked effects, distribution, and brand to sustain margins and pricing power over time.

This is an essential conversation for building and maintaining a competitive advantage in any industry.

Dan and Ian challenge listeners to answer five questions about your business that will help you evaluate how healthy your operations are.

They cover everything from doubling down on what’s working best to effective resource allocation and working “on” your business instead of “in” your business.

You’ll also be challenged to ask yourself: “What would a skilled entrepreneur do with my business?”

Take out your pens and notepad (very important), and consider this episode a free coaching session and a little taste of DC Accelerator.

In this week's episode Dan and Ian discuss the importance of the concept of Labor Efficiency Ratio (LER), to scale your business to a million dollars in revenue.

They highlight the challenge of transitioning from being a craftsperson to a CEO and the importance of building a profitable business model that can operate without the founder's constant involvement.

They continue this concept by focusing on the importance of financial planning and analysis (FP&A) in growing a business.

Having someone to provide structure and make data-driven decisions can lead to some shocking discoveries and help you identify areas for improvement and optimize your business performance.

The conversation concludes with a recap of the DC Mexico event and a call for referrals for future events!

Dan reflects on his trip to Mexico last week where he hung out with 200 founders and listeners of the pod.

Vulnerability, lessons from exiting a business, and a secretive membership called “being parents” were common themes.

Another major topic was the launch of our new coaching program, DC Accelerator. Dan talks about how getting to $1M and beyond takes not just willpower or desire, but most importantly, it takes discipline.

He shares the two tools required to run a business of any size. Whether you’re a 1-person operation of have 1000’s of employees, these two tools remain the same.

Health and wellness is the ultimate productivity hack, impacting every aspect of life.

Adam Gilbert, founder of My Body Tutor, discovered that consistency is key, and accountability, mindset, and personalized plans help clients stay on track. It’s also what sets his business apart.

My Body Tutor has been generating demand for their service for 17 years, having a flawless reputation, and obsessively focusing on getting clients results.

In this episode Adam shares his strategies for pricing demand, how to handle client churn, and balancing family life with his passion.

This week we had the pleasure of sitting down with Barry O'Brien, a global traveler, as he shares his 18-month journey to 15 countries on just $100 a day or less.

Barry tells us stories about his experience in Vietnam, the most surprisingly underwhelming destination he visited, the most expensive and inexpensive destinations, how he saved, prepared, and what he learned in the end.

He discusses his journey from following Dave Ramsey's steps to discovering the FIRE movement and combining the principles of both to pay off $51,000 of debt, and give him the financial freedom to pursue his dream trip.

He talks about the importance of passive income, his philosophy of focusing on one thing that you can do well, the process of obtaining US citizenship, and the challenges and opportunities it presents.

Crafting your value proposition into an irresistible offer is not an easy task. Andrew Jacoby, entrepreneur and visionary behind Growth Era, a thriving outbound sales company, knows this all too well.

Andrew shares his journey, highlighting the pivotal role of Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) in driving business success.

Discover the power of focusing on what you know best and building a business around recurring services as Andrew unveils the concept of risk reversal and its impact on skyrocketing conversion rates.

From navigating the challenges of educating a market to the transition from CEO to operator, Andrew offers practical strategies for building a robust team and fostering deep community connections amidst a nomadic lifestyle.

Tune in as Andrew delves into the core values of moral fiber and virtue in business, underscoring the true essence of freedom and happiness.

Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or seasoned business leader, this episode promises a wealth of wisdom to elevate your sales game.

Is it possible to bootstrap a high-level business if you’re broke? Listen to Dan & Ian’s take on what kinds of businesses are best to start when you’re starting with basically nothing.

Also, what the hell does a visionary do? Dan suggests that the best visionaries have integrator tendencies.

They’ll consider how Kevin Kelly’s “100 True Fans” can lead to sustainable revenue through a concept called “The Death of the Follower”.

Lastly, Dan pitches a business idea that requires zero startup cost, 3 days a week of effort, and could easily net you $250K.

The hard part shouldn’t be how to implement an OS in your organization. The hard part is answering the question: Are the right people in the right roles at your company?

In this episode, Dan and Ian share their own OS that’s extremely simple. It’s called GPS. They’ll explain how GPS helps you put a plan in place to meet your goals, and deliver on that plan. That’s it.

Also, hiring for specific tasks, the impact of remote work on hiring, and more.

In this episode, Ian and Dan discuss the concept of doing things that don't scale, inspired by Paul Graham's influential article 'Do Things That Don't Scale.' They explore the idea of taking risks and gambling in entrepreneurship, and how it relates to increasing one's locus of control. The conversation covers various strategies for founders, including recruiting users manually, building something fragile, delighting users, focusing on experience, and niche marketing. In this conversation, Ian and Dan discuss Paul Graham's article 'Do Things That Don't Scale' and explore the principal themes and takeaways. They cover topics such as the idea of scaling, fabricating products yourself, consulting and acting as an anchor client, going manual and doing unscalable laborious tasks, the illusion of big launches and partnerships, vectors vs. scalars (ideas and execution), and the temptation to gamble and the importance of locus of control.

Dan and Ian discuss the different phases of bootstrapping a business and the common challenges that arise at each stage. They walk through three phases: “The Mindset” (zero to $250k); “The Scalability Factor” ($250k to 1 million); and “The Enterprise” ($1 million +) to explore everything from adjusting the offer to the marketplace and developing a strong customer base to making a rule that the founder should be responsible for growth up to $5M.

They also explore the crucial role that team composition plays in the professionalization of the company. Finally, they discuss the decision between maximizing profitability and scaling the business.

Dan talks to Jordan Gal, founder of Rally and co-host of the Bootsrapped Web podcast about challenges in the ecommerce space, product-market fit and demand, partnerships and veto power, the quietness of crypto, risking other people’s money, and more…

There’s one thing that founders tend to really struggle with when it comes to growing their business and that’s getting the right team in place. Listen as Jordan shows Dan how and why he fires unfit team members.

Dan & Ian talk to John Doherty, the founder of Editor Ninja, former owner of Credo, and cohost of the Working Sessions podcast about three major trends he’s seeing in the agency space that could impact your strategy and profitability for the year and beyond.

John talks about the challenges of running a full-service agency, a shift towards specialization in productized services, the need for outsourced strategic layers, focusing on profitability, and more.

Stick around for the guys to reveal six productized-service business ideas.

Transitioning through the death zone requires careful execution and a focus on profitability. The $3 million dollar mark is a critical milestone for businesses, and many struggle to push through it.

In this episode, Dan talks to Greg Crabtree, author of Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! about how founders can push through the death zone (otherwise known as the messy middle) and grow their profit far beyond that $3M mark.

Some of the common mistakes made by founders include not understanding profit truth, not investing in finance and accounting, and not effectively managing labor efficiency.

This week Dan & Ian share a few thought experiments you can do to improve your business and reach your next breakthrough.

They cover the value of a writing-first culture, the Queen Bee Role & how transparent should you be with your team?

Plus, a ticket giveaway to one qualified founder.

Going deeper on shiny object syndrome, Dan & Ian open the mailbag to read responses to last week’s episode. A listener shares his success story with shiny object syndrome, revealing how he pursues his entrepreneurial impulses without growing crazy. The listener emphasizes the value of muscle memory when it comes to going from zero to one successfully.

Dan & Ian will also discuss how to use societal and scene shifts to gain traction on an idea and even build a successful business out of an idea that might seem a little stupid (to everyone else) at the time.

Plus, we’re looking for our next TMBA team member! If you love reading and writing about business topics and think working alongside Dan & Ian might seem like fun (or a little stupid!), let's talk.

Dan & Ian delve into the complexities of combating shiny object syndrome, a challenge that plagues all entrepreneurs at one time or another (or all the time).

They’ll talk about six strategies for tackling “the syndrome” and how to harness your skill of going zero-to-one to grow your business to the next level.

In this episode Dan uncovers The Ultimate TMBA Business: a productized service business built on a skill set.

Tom Kent started his business based on a very specific skill set of his: he was good at getting jobs. Now Tom is the founder and CEO of Career Nerds, a 7-figure productized service that he’s doubling every year because of his precise lead generation strategies and very clear goals.

In this episode, Tom gives us a roadmap for turning a skill into a powerful productized service business. Plus, how he avoids the distraction of other target markets and opportunities and stays focused on his goal.

Vince Nguyen joins Dan to share how he resurrected his agency from semi-retirement and in the first month resumed making 5+ figures per client. He runs his agency solo and shares some of his biggest hacks for success. Vince essentially delivers a masterclass in running a successful solo-agency as well as how to improve Facebook Ads for your business (hint: it’s pretty simple!).

But first, Dan & Ian have some fun catching up about some big company news and how to operate on a profit-first system from day one and why that’s actually critical for scale.

They also talk about two trending ways for finding and connecting with customers that are leading to more sales, that you can implement as early as today.