TMBA Podcast Episodes
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TMBA 224: Listener Questions, Like : "I Make $1,000 a Month, Now What?"
Since an angry fish seemed to have cut the internet wire in the ocean, Ian and I are cut off from one another. In his stead, Jesse “The Dominator” Lawler has stepped up to bring value to the masses. The listener questions continue to get better and better, so The Dominator and I are cruising through some of the quality questions from the past week, including one that I get asked a lot, “So I’ve made $1,000… now what?”.
TMBA 223: Things We'd Change if We Started Our Product Business Today
We’ve been looking back a lot to the beginning of The Valet Spot now that we’ve released the info to the public and realized that although we did a lot right, we screwed up a lot too. We figured with some of the big changes and our growth trajectory coming up, it would be a good idea to sit down and discuss what we did wrong, and what we did right so it can help some people in the e-commerce world avoid our biggest mistakes.
TMBA 222: The Full Story Behind Our First Niche
For a variety of reasons, Ian and I have never spoken openly about the first successful B2B business we ever started– TheValetSpot.com. This week we are going to change all that and go into the details of how that business got started, how we won market share, and what we are doing to grow the business in the future. Terry Lin from Build My Online Store was kind enough to interview Ian for his great podcast and I think he did a great job of extracting the real scoop. We asked him if we could share his interview with our listeners, and he was very gracious for letting us share it here. Enjoy!
TMBA 221: 5 Trends In Remote Working and Team Building
I’ve got Joe “Hot Money” Magnotti on as my co-host this week in the wake of Ian’s much needed romp in Europe. Today, we’re passing the ball back and forth about the direction things are going regarding remote working and team building. We’ve been noticing that the old norms are shifting (some have been for a while) to a new era that we’re super stoked for. We dig into a ton of meaty stuff and add a little philosophical fun at the end.
TMBA 220: Thoughts on Email Marketing (60% of Our B2B Customers Open Our Emails on Mobile!)
In the process of launching and iterating on Valet Up, our new SaaS app developed for valet companies, Ian and I have been working on refining our email marketing strategies and how we can snag some extra customers and improve our closing average. On top of this, an email came in from Mark from Art Of Baseball and he asks how he can improve his email marketing to gain more customers. With the timing being as perfect as it was, we had to share our thoughts.
TMBA 219: 5 Lifestyle Business Thought Experiments
Ian and I are both in the “on the road” mindset this week– we’re both mentally preparing to head out traveling or a little while. In that casual spirit we’ve both been dreaming a bit about what the future might hold. We asked some team members and listeners to help us out with some entrepreneurial and lifestyle thought experiments, and what we recorded were some of our raw thoughts on issues from “what makes success?” to “what’s your favorite place to live?”
TMBA 218 : The Consultant’s Handbook - How to Make Location Independent Income Quickly
We’ve gotten a few phone calls recently that set us off on a path to the discussion we had this week on the Tropical MBA Podcast. Making location independent income quickly is very doable, especially going the route of the consultant. There are a few keys to making it work the right way and eventually being able to move it into something bigger, and that’s what this episode is all about.
TMBA 217: Selling the Assets of Your Business in a Strategic Sale
Cam Collins runs a business that helps marinas manage their boat inventory. He recently sold the assets of the company in a strategic merger, and we’re pumped that Cam came by the podcast to share the lessons he learned during the process.
TMBA 216: Carnegie on How Young People Can Get Ahead in the World
Ever dream of changing your life and getting ahead in the world? Andrew Carnegie gave a speech to ambitious college students over 100 years ago outlining his best advice, and despite his poor understanding of search engine optimization, it rings just as true today. In this week’s podcast Ian and I go over Mr. Carnegie’s advice and relate it to our own experience.– you can read the full text here.
TMBA 215: DCBKK 2013 - What Our Speakers Taught Us
After this weekend’s incredible DCBKK event, Dan and Ian sift through the mountain of helpful information, solid business advice and entrepreneurial savvy to bring you the highlights of the event. This episode’s cup is overflowing with takeaways that the fellas gleaned from each speaker’s presentation. You might want to grab a notepad for this one.
TMBA 214: 10 Predictions For 2014 and Beyond
As we approach DCBKK, we wanted to have a little chat about our predictions for the future of business as we know it. There’s a shift that’s slowly happening as we progress and we’re starting to see a massive rise in the growth of location independent, professionally run businesses. Kaiser Soze himself is hanging with Ian and I for a super fun discussion.
TMBA 213: What Makes a Great Conference Talk?
The fellas are switching things up and coming to you from Europe this week. Having just finished speaking at the MicroConf event in Prague, they’ve got insights coming out of their ears and just couldn’t wait to share them with you. You’ll hear about some of the spotlight speakers from the event and the incredible frameworks, modalities and systems they employ to see wild success in the software and SAAS industries.
TMBA 212: Building Distributed Software Teams in Asia
Hollywood filmmaker (with an imdb profile!), software programmer, podcaster, and most importantly, The Dominator of all things, Jesse Lawler is on the show this week to discuss a few of my favorite things. Jesse was working in L.A. as a filmmaker when the economy took a nose dive and no one would even think about funding an indie flick. He made the ever-so-difficult decision to pack his bags and head off to Vietnam and build a distributed software team. It isn’t quite as simple as it sounds, which is what makes this episode so intriguing.
TMBA 211: How Is It Possible To Raise $100,000 In 4 Days Without Giving Away Equity Or Taking A Loan?
So many people struggle to get a great idea off the ground because they didn’t validate and ask the market to vote with their wallets. Jimmy and Doug from Minaal have completely turned this on its back. Not only were they meticulously calculated about the launch of their killer travel bag designed for location independent entrepreneurs, but they launched a Kickstarter which generated $100,000 in only 4 days! I’ve got them cornered to hear an in depth analysis of how they built this business from nothing and used Kickstarter to become a force in the travel bag industry.
TMBA 210: How To Get Rich
It’s not hard to see why Michael Covel (here’s my interview on his show) is a mega popular podcaster– he’s a scrappy entrepreneur who made good and isn’t scared to share his opinions. I’ve learned a lot from him through our conversations– about finance, world politics, and trading– but in this episode I really wanted to know: how does one get rich? I went right to the horse’s mouth and wasn’t disappointed. In this episode we explore Michael’s story, and learn how he launched his exceptionally successful online business.
TMBA 209 : How to Effectively Use Google Adwords
Today Ian and I sit down with the one and only Dave Huss to talk about generating paid traffic to your site. With so many recent changes in advertising platforms and capabilities to come, this episode is full of marketing avenues you should be using in your business.
TMBA 208 - What We're Reading
Ian and I have been wanting to bring an updated reading list to move your journey forward. On this episode, we wax a little philosophical about a variety of the best stuff we’ve been reading.
TMBA 207 - Working More Doesn't Always Pay Off
Back in the day, becoming productive– for me– meant locking myself in the house and putting the coffee maker on overdrive. We’ve learned since then a lot about the frameworks that empower exceptionally productive entrepreneurs, and in this episode we’ll share which ones we use, which ones we’ve discarded, and of course, which ones we disagree on!
TMBA 206 - Should You Deprioritize Your Income and Go After Your Passion?
This week on the Tropical MBA Podcast we decided to give Mark Manson a call to dig further into his idea that “passion is practical.” Mark walked away from big income to focus on a project he was passionate about, and it ended up working out better in the end. Was it just a fluke? Did he get lucky? Or is there a broader lesson in all of this?
TMBA 205 - Dreamline 3.0 - A Simple Approach to Getting What You Want in Life
After recording this episode it occurred to me that the moment I became an entrepreneur had nothing to do with sales, product development, or legal structures. I became an entrepreneur the day I sat down and defined precisely what it was I wanted in life– and then developed a plan to go and get it. Today’s episode outlines how you can concretely outline your own dreams and business goals. And for those of you who have already “made it” this is relevant too. As Ian says, you don’t want to get stopped at the “complacency cafe.” :)