2 Location Independent Jobs : Join Our Team or Live for Free in a Resort in the Philippines

Summary: this post describes two job opportunities. The first is a full-time position and a direct report to me. We’re looking for somebody to help manage and improve our community. The second is a part-time gig. Candidates will be offered 4 months of free rent and 3 meals a day at a resort in the Philippines in exchange for one day a week of work and consulting. If you have any friends who would be interested, I’d appreciate you forwarding this post to them. Thank you!

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Background: The Tropical MBA started in late 2009. My first post was a job listing for an intern. At the time I was cash strapped and I couldn’t afford to pay somebody a US level salary, but I knew I needed smart people to help me grow my business. A virtual assistant wasn’t going to cut it.

I could, however, afford to pay somebody enough money to be a backpacker style traveler. I figured if I’d let somebody travel while they worked, they’d work for much less then they would back home. Back in my mid 20’s, I used to search Craigslist looking for “jet set entrepreneur seeks protege” type opportunities. The concept made so much sense to me– I was desperate for access to a community of people who had managed to create lives where they had a great deal of personal freedom– but I never found anything. TMBA type job opportunities were created with that inspiration in mind.

Since 2009, in one way or another, we’ve sponsored over 10 “internships” (each job posting has different terms, some are not internships but jobs– please read the listings carefully). So far, nobody who has joined a TMBA job opportunity has ever returned to conventional employment. When I started TMBA, I didn’t have much of an online track record (our first intern, Sean Ogle effectively risked his life flying to Thailand after only a Skype call or two… cheers Sean!).

Since that time, I’ve recorded 100’s of podcasts, so it’s pretty easy to get an idea where I’m coming from. In a nutshell: I read the Four Hour Work Week in 2007 and decided I needed to start a business. Since that time, my business partner and I have built small handful of businesses, and have had a lot of fun in the process. You can get the broad strokes here.

Ok. Ready to hear about the gigs?

Job #1 – Community Manager for Dynamite Circle

The Dynamite Circle is an online community for digital nomads and location independent entrepreneurs. There are close to 600 qualified members in the DC (we call ourselves “DCers”). We help each other with our businesses, organize long term meet-ups in cities around the world (I’m currently hanging around in Saigon with a bunch of DCers all because of one thread started by Jon Myers), and collaborate on weekly mastermind phone calls.

We also have conferences every 6 months– this year in Berlin and Bangkok– where we all get together, enjoy talks from luminaries in our community, and (ahem) have a little bit of a party.

As the DC grows, our needs continue to evolve. We need more good team members to help us to serve the community better. That’s where you come in.

You will manage the following processes:

1. Front line customer service. Including billing, records keeping, CRM, Paypal account management. The way our community is set up means you’ll need to log into your computer every 12 hours to keep customer inquiries up to date.

2. Basic technology management. Including upkeep of our websites related to the DC. You’ll work with our contractors to ensure timely delivery of new technology features.

3. Moderation. You’ll help moderate the DC forums, including facilitating masterminds, event planning, content flagging, conflict resolution, and content curation into Wikis, resource posts, link round-ups, and other useful resources.

4. Member concierge. We spend a lot of time helping our members out. You’ll be the front line for organizing requests from our members and helping them get what they need. You’ll get a lot of messages from DCers saying things like “I need x!” and we’ll expect you to jump to the task with enthusiasm.

5. DC Publications. You’ll help curate content for our regular publications letting DCers know what’s going on in the community.

6. DC events. You’ll be helping us organize our conferences. You’ll be the boots on the ground, booking the venues, making sure the AV equipment works kind of support.

7. Reporting and communication. You’ll be responsible for articulating regularly to the rest of the team precisely what is happening with our business. You’ll generate weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports outlining our progress.

General expectations of you are:

• You must be based out of South East Asia. For three reasons: 1) you’ll be able to cultivate in-person relationships with the highest concentration of DCers on the planet, 2) we’ll be able to collaborate with us (myself, Elisa, and Ian) from time to time in person and 3) the initial compensation is at such a level that you’ll live a decent lifestyle in SEAsia, but not likely other regions of the world.

• You must be interested in a full time position with tons of growth potential. This is not an internship. I expect you to put your full effort into helping us grow our business. For the right person, there are a great deal of opportunities for you to increase your level of responsibility, fun, and compensation. I’m not interested in hiring people with robust side projects or businesses. I’d like somebody to work with us for a few years and help make our community something we can be extremely proud of. The DC is full of some of the most creative, interesting, and helpful people I’ve ever met– from artists, to brilliant programmers, to multimillionaire investors. Your job will be to help them achieve their goals on a daily basis.

• You’ll be expected to make your way to a few meet-ups every year. We’ve got two big conferences every year, plus many regional meet-ups. We’d love to bring somebody on the team who wants to be a part of our in-person events.

• We’ll be looking for somebody with a high emotional intelligence and an outgoing personality. We want to hire somebody who loves hanging out with entrepreneurs, creative people, and fellow adventurers. We’ll be seeking people who has a high level of empathy and tolerance for conflict resolution (a difficult combo!) If you don’t like to socialize, build relationships, connect people who can help each other, and advocate for DC principles in general, this isn’t the right position for you.

• Observant and articulate. We want an extra set of ears to the ground, listening to what our members want and developing ways to get it for them. We’ll need you to be excellent and reading and writing– you’ll be doing them both all day long– hanging around in our forums, helping us to articulate policies, proceedures, new content, and other fun stuff for our members.

• Excellent with computers. You don’t need to write a lick of code, but if terms like CPANEL, DNS, HTML, CSS, SEO, Squeeze Page, and the like are unfamiliar to you, you probably don’t have the level of technical know-how we are seeking.

• You must be available to start working at the beginning of April. You don’t need to show up to SEAsia at that time for this gig, but we do expect your full time effort to begin April 1st, 2013.

Logistics:

1. The compensation for this full time job is just enough to to live a good lifestyle in a city like Saigon, Hanoi, Manila, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, etc.

2. Application deadline is March 12th, 2013.

3. Full time job starts April 1st, 2013.

Here’s how you can apply:

1. STEP 1 : Record a 1:00 video of yourself. Tell me why you’d be a great fit for this job. Set the video as “unlisted.”

2. STEP 2 : Fill out this form, and be sure to have your Youtube (or other video sharing service) link handy.

3. STEP 3 : We’ll do our best to get back to you about our decision by March 17th.

Good luck! If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments so everyone can benefit from the answers.

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Job #2 – Live at a resort in the Philippines for free for 4 months.

A photo of your new front yard, courtesy of Tommy Schultz.

Since we started the TMBA, my good friend Sean has graciously hosted 4 online marketers at his resort. If you are interested in how this works, you must listen to this podcast interview with him. The last guy, Ben Krueger, has been here almost six months, and just like the interns who preceded him, has managed to turn 4 months of free food and board into a jumping off point to bootstrap his own business.

There is hardly a better spot on the planet to baseline your expense, relax, and focus on your work. This model has been proven, is a great time, and works for a certain kind of individual— namely— one who’s dead set on not having a job. That means you might have a little something going already, perhaps you’ve got a big nut saved up, or maybe you just want to chill out on a tropical island for a few months.

There’s no question— you’ll be treated like a king (or queen!) Included in the deal is a free room at Badladz resort, 3 full meals a day, free laundry service, and free use of the Badladz motor scooters.

So what’s the catch? Well it’s not all fun and games— you’ll be expected to spend one whole working day serving as the resort’s marketing director per week. You’ll also be expected to help out as the resident ‘expert’ on a day to day basis. This isn’t for people who are counting hours– you’ll be called on a lot as resident smart person and internet guru.

We are looking for helpful team players willing to be part of the Badladz crew, plus put in a rock solid 8 hours every week doing online marketing for the resort.  Everyone in Puerto Galera will get to know you and you’ll become part of the family here at Badladz.

You will manage the following processes:

• Train our local staff (including a new developer) how to maintain our websites.

• Provide technical assistance with on site hardware.

• Regularly update marketing for websites.

• Help launch our “Adventure ESL” marketing package.

• Continue ongoing marketing campaigns.

• Implement additional booking agencies

• Create one new Marketing strategy

• You’ll be working on Sean’s Youtube channel, Resort Rebel, Badladz, among others.

General expectations of you are:

• You are sales and results focused.

• You’ve got no problem with tech and marketing stuff– content, SEO, Aweber, affiliate programs and all the rest.

• WordPress literate. The whole business runs on WordPress, we are looking for people with a demonstrated track record with the platform.

• Excellent with computers.

• Functional SEO for websites and YouTube videos (Sean’s videos have over 700,00 views!!!).

• The Philippines is a crazy developing country, candidates will do well to address the “fit” issue and let us know why they are drawn to live in a random island in the Philippines (or show some kind of experience or drive to do so).

Logistics:

1. The compensation for this job is free room and food for 4 months. 

2. Application deadline is March 12th, 2013.

3. Full time job starts April 15th, 2013. We’ll ensure we’ve got some boots on the ground to get you trained up on all the systems at the resort.

4. The deal extends from April 15th to August 15th. With an option to extend or grow your position if things are going well.

Here’s how you can apply:

1. STEP 1 : Record a 1:00 video of yourself. Tell us why you’d be a great fit for Sean’s resort. Set the video as “unlisted” and grab the URL.

2. STEP 2 : Fill out this form, and be sure to have your Youtube (or other video sharing service) link handy.

3. STEP 3 : We’ll do our best to get back to you about our decision by March 17th.

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That’s it! Thank you for your interest in our jobs. If you have any questions about the offers above, please ask them in the comments so I can answer them for everyone’s benefit.

Cheers!

Dan

PS, if you’d like to be sure to never miss another opportunity like this, be sure to put your name on our mailing list: