Dan and Ian are now back in Bali just in time for the New Year’s festivities. Between celebrations, they’ll be putting together their game plan for 2013 and setting some lofty goals for 2013. The turn of the new year marks Dan and Ian’s fifth year in business which sparks a discussion on goal setting and identifying keystone habits. These help form their New Year’s resolutions where they’ll push past just talking revenue and business growth. You’ll hear about Dan’s professional aspirations, Ian’...
Dec 27, 2012•24 min
Almost back in Bali! Ian’s heading to join Dan in Bali in just a few days for the end of the year. They’re going to take a look back at their businesses in 2012 and look forward at how to grow their businesses in 2013. They’ve realized that in order to continue to scale, they need to get even more focused on creating documentation and standards of procedure. They took a look at the literature and brought their experience from their e-commerce company together to bring you a step-by-step guide to...
Dec 20, 2012•29 min
Dan and Ian are making plans to rendevous in Bali again. Dan is still there working on his book, while Ian is in Orlando avoiding the M3 service industry guys and spending time with his family. Ian’s recent trip to a race prompted a discussion between the guys about deferred life plans. There’s a built in assumption that retirement is worth 30 years of investment, but is that true?
Dec 13, 2012•27 min
It’s time for another Tropical Talk Radio podcast, which gets published every Friday afternoon (Hong Kong time). In this week’s episode Dan hands off the mic to a recording of David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech given in 2005 to Kenyon College in Ohio. It’s inspiring and thought-provoking. Give it a listen.
Dec 07, 2012•26 min
Dan’s set a Sunday deadline for finishing his first book and getting it to a group of Beta readers. Ian and Dan have laid out the upcoming meetups for DCers with definite meetups in April (Europe) and October (Bangkok – #DCBKK) and a potential get together in the Phillipines in March. In today’s episode Dan and Ian make some predictions for 2013 and beyond. Turns out, they think Seth Godin is a pretty smart guy.
Dec 06, 2012•31 min
It’s time for another Tropical Talk Radio podcast, which gets published every Friday afternoon (Hong Kong time). Here’s the link to subscribe in Itunes if you haven’t already done so. In this week’s episode I respond to a few reader emails I received this week.
Nov 30, 2012•21 min
It’s getting late in the year and we all know what that means: Buck season. While Ian is stalking the big bucks back in San Diego, Dan’s writing binge in Bali continues. Content Marketing is a hot topic in the internet marketing world right now, but what does content marketing really mean? Dan and Ian define what great content really is and show how you can use the Rule of 6 to spring load your content marketing efforts.
Nov 29, 2012•32 min
It’s time for another Tropical Talk Radio podcast, which gets published every Friday afternoon (Hong Kong time). In this week’s episode I respond to a few reader emails I received this week.
Nov 23, 2012•19 min
Dan has adopted the Tim Ferriss book writing method and isolated himself from everything except Evernote. Ian on the other hand is tearing it up in San Diego and prepping for a motorcycle race. In this week’s episode, Dan and Ian explore the benefits of being a “sociopath” (it’s not what it sounds like). Inspired by a Ribbonfarm post from Venkat, they discuss the relationship between sociopaths, the clueless, and the losers.
Nov 22, 2012•30 min
It’s time for another Tropical Talk Radio podcast, which gets published every Friday afternoon (Asia time). Here’s the link to subscribe in Itunes if you haven’t already done so. In this week’s episode I respond to a few reader emails I received this week.
Nov 16, 2012•24 min
Dan’s bean bag sitting in Bali, intermittently nuking himself off the internet to make sure he gets his book taken care of on time while Ian’s in San Diego taking care of business like a boss. After getting some inspiration from the Adsense Flippers, Dan and Ian decided to go for a knock down drag out four-rounder this week. They asked Taylor, the new guy on the team, to put together 4 unique business premises. Dan and Ian come up with unique solutions to each premise and it’s up to you guys to ...
Nov 15, 2012•37 min
This week I totally geek out on one of my favorite topics: how do various locations in Southeast Asia stack up to each other for internet entrepreneurs? During the conversation I share a lot of anecdotes from my last 5 months on the road, along with a few new pieces of information I’ve picked up along the way. Hope you enjoy and curious to hear your thoughts as always.
Nov 09, 2012•31 min
Dan’s still in Bali grinding out his first book while Ian’s back in San Diego working on taking the product business to the next level. Inspired by a talk Cal Newport gave, Dan and Ian reveal that the script to success, however you define it. While success is something each person decides on, there is a script that everyone can follow to get themselves there. With all the talk in the blogosphere about “passion,” the true story about achieving success and happiness seems to be a little more compl...
Nov 08, 2012•25 min
I’m back in Bali hoping to take advantage of the inspiring scenery and lifestyle to get a ton of work done. I was excited to hop on the mic solo-style this week and address those of you who plan to spend the weekend hustling away. In this week’s show I talk about some digital nomad hot spots as well as 10 business red flags that prevent you and your business from achieving maximum velocity.
Nov 02, 2012•22 min
Dan and Ian are homeward bound. Ian just got back San Diego and Dan’s headed to Bali for November to write his first book. Both still coming down from the high and energy of DCBKK, they wanted to tackle a tough question on the real meaning of wealth and entrepreneurship. Everyone knows that society has certain scripts and most people blindly assume the numbers support those. Dan and Ian sit down to look at the facts of a 20 year trajectory for a professional job vs. an entrepreneur and then look...
Nov 01, 2012•33 min
We had a blast at the DCBKK conference over the weekend, but we’ve got more big plans lined up. The CEO-yeah is heading back to the good ole’ U.S. of A. and I’m heading up to Chiang Mai to do a little scouting and see if it could be worthy of being the next TMBA compound. Starting this week, I’m holding my feet to the fire and saying that all you weekend warriors will be getting a brand new episode of Tropical Talk Radio in your earbuds every Friday to keep you jammin’ on your business all weeke...
Oct 26, 2012•36 min
After the first annual Dynamite Circle DCBKK Conference in Bangkok, Dan and Ian blew it out Bangkok-style. But first, they sat down with SEO guru Travis Jamisonfrom Supremacy SEO to discuss some of the latest Google algorithm updates and how Travis is adjusting. Lots of site owners have been left scrambling after the Google Penguin updates and refereshes over the past months, not to mention the Exact Match Domain update that rolled out a few weeks ago. While the rest of the world screams “SEO is...
Oct 25, 2012•34 min
After two weeks in Puerto Galera with the October TMBA session, Dan and Ian celebrated Dan’s birthday in style at the classic Filippino restaurant TGIFriday’s and then curled up under a staircase in the Mall of Asia to bring this episode to you. Having done three sessions with various TMBA participants and being asked weekly similar questions from folks starting their own businesses, they’ve come to notice some consistent things that happen with every new business owner. The good news is that th...
Oct 18, 2012•22 min
Coming to you live from Badladz Resort in the Philippines, complete with patented LBP cafe noise and janky wi-fi upload speeds. This week Dan jumped on the phone with the man, the myth, the Aussie legend in content marketing and helping customers online, James Schramko of Super Fast Business and one of Dan’s new favorite podcasts Freedom Ocean. A super-sized episode that caused Dan to spend the past week to say to Ian “Did I tell you what Schramko told me? Have I told you about my interview with...
Oct 12, 2012•45 min
Do you know where you were and what you were doing five years ago this week? Five years ago (October 2nd, 2007 to be exact) Dan and Ian were sitting at brunch when Dan got a notification on his original iPhone that they had gotten paid for their first product sale. Sure, there were some problems. Like the fact that they didn’t actually have a manufactured product to ship out at the time of the sale. But that email was the confirmation they needed. Starting that day they set their sights on a bus...
Oct 04, 2012•18 min
This week Dan is the one hard at work and Ian is asleep on the job. Stranger things have happened…ever seen a tabloid alien story? Dan took the opportunity to chat up Prateek Dayal, founder of startups like Muziboo and recently SupportBee. Dan and Ian met Prateek as they traveled across Vietnam this summer meeting up with folks from the Dynamite Circle and LBP listeners. Having started companies from India, Santiago Chile, and now Saigon Vietnam, they knew they had to have him on the show to lea...
Sep 20, 2012•27 min
Dan and Ian are both in the States and working on their next big thing – the Dynamite Circle Conference in Bangkok in October. Planning conferences is a lot of work that you never even thought of until the hotel was asking what kind of breakfast menus you would prefer during your third break on the second day. Who has a breakfast menu during their third break?! They decided to call in a pro and chat it up with Rob Walling, the founder of MicroConf (The Conference For Self-Funded Startups.) With ...
Sep 13, 2012•40 min
Dan and Ian got so many great questions from last week’s carefully orchestrated listener request that they decided to keep a few for future episodes that needed more than a quick answer. In this episode they tackle this frustrating issue that plagues many an information product or intangible service provider Head down and pencils up – this episode is full of pricing insights and strategies you need to have a successful online business, including: When To Offer Your Customers Credit Why The G...
Sep 06, 2012•34 min
Dan and Ian spent the past week working diligently to poll the LBP audience and find the deepest darkest unasked listener questions. Or they sent a Tweet before the show started. We leave it up to you to decide what really happened. Either way, they ended up with some great questions and requests for advice from the LBP community, many of which were from listeners they’d never heard from before. Which made Dan grin, cause he loves you silent majority folks.
Aug 30, 2012•26 min
Dan and Ian spent a fair amount of time (ok…they spent a session) learning Crossfit from Joe Bauer in the Philippines during the recent Tropical MBA session. After they managed to drag themselves back to the microphone, they realized there was some techniques to work out on the LBP. The thing with starting a biznass is that it isn’t all rainbows and puppies. There’s some heavy lifting that you have to do to get that baby off the ground, and we’re not talking reps with a tropical umbrella drink. ...
Aug 23, 2012•16 min
It’s a special podcast here at the LBP. Dan and Ian are joined for a bonus-length episode as they host the Summer Marketing Mashup guys (Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income, Jason Van Orden & Jeremy Frandsen from Internet Business Mastery, and Tim Conley from Foolish Adventure) to talk shop on niche selection. So sit back, grab your beverage of choice and a notebook (or Evernote), and check out the final installment in the Summer Marketing Mashup series.
Aug 16, 2012•1 hr 4 min
Dan and Ian and the folks in the August TMBA session have made it through 40 days and nights of rain and wind in Puerto Galera. Ok, it’s more like 7 days, but 40 sounds way more intense. With all these businesses working on taking their businesses to the next level, marketing is a key piece of the conversation. Yet there’s so many options when you are setting up your marketing strategy. Some are quick and dirty, some are putting in for some long ball. How do you choose? Dan and Ian went back to ...
Aug 09, 2012•24 min
How does a lazy blogger increase their email subscription rate by 257% and in the process get an automatic sales machine working for them and generating sales in their sleep? Well– you could hire John McIntyre— but for those of you who have teams or willing to do it yourself, we invited John on the show to get the details on how he did it. It’s also time for us to offer another Tropical MBA internship here at Badladz resort in Puerto Galera, Mindoro (sorry, so much for the “no more interns” thin...
Aug 07, 2012•20 min
Happy Friday everyone! Today Ian and I are joining you from Puerto Galera, Philippines. We found a few minutes away from the events here at the Tropical MBA to discuss a topic that’s been on our minds lately: How do we frame up this new style of multi-national small business entrepreneurship, and what are some related business opportunities? A lot of people have been talking about this trend lately, we dug up this article to serve as the basic structure for this episode. We believe the opportuni...
Aug 03, 2012•21 min
It’s been a really rough week for Dan and Ian. This is mostly due to the fact that they arrived in the Philippines to meet with 14 bright eyed participants of our August TMBA Session and it was a bit of a challenge. Not because of the participants. Instead they encountered a slight typhoon wreaking havoc on Manila, Batangas City & Pier, Mindoro, Puerto Galera, and Badladz Resort. In other words, they were surrounded by the storm. What should have been a fun 3-hour tour of the Philippines to ...
Aug 02, 2012•24 min
