http://www.tropicalmba.com/businessideas/ Back when Ian and I were working a 9-to-5, we were dreaming up all kinds of ideas to start a business. Over the years, we've discovered what we like to call the Business Idea Paradox; When you need these ideas the most, they are the hardest to come by. Ian and I have decided to donate some of our business ideas that we don't have the time or resources to pursue. We've also reached out to our listeners who have donated some of their own business ideas for...
Jan 22, 2015•32 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/family/ I'm in the beautiful South Philippines today and in this very location last year, I met today's guests: Paul and Becky Kortman. The Kortmans are a big family with a unique story. Paul runs his own digital marketing agency called Connex Social. Last year they sold their house and 90% of their belongings and decided to hit the road. They ended up taking 25 flights and visiting over 30 different locations. We're gonna talk about how location independence effects f...
Jan 15, 2015•44 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/7daystartup/ Do you think it is possible to launch a scale-able start-up in just one week's time with no money invested? That might sound too good to be true, but Dan Norris has not only articulated an approach to this in his book, "The 7 Day Startup", he has also used it to grow his own business, WPcurve to close to $25K in monthly recurring revenue it his first year, and nearly 50K in monthly recurring revenue now. On this week's episode, I've invited him on to the s...
Jan 08, 2015•39 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/investing/ Bossman and I have taken the last few weeks off to recharge and prepare for our upcoming Singapore Event. We're back from our short break and ringing in the new year by discussing a question that Marc Cuban asked recently: What should the average investor do with $50,000? We'll dissect some of the ideas he proposed about financial investments, talk about how the location-independent entrepreneur can put them to good use, and explain exactly what makes our up...
Jan 01, 2015•21 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/builtajob/ With the help of our friend Taylor Pearson from TaylorPearson.me, we are continuing our 5 part series. The first episode was about making that first $1,000 of income. This episode is all about the next phase of a business, where you are starting to make a living, but you're trying to figure out how to scale that and turn it into a real asset. We'll talk about how we got out of our jobs and built a business, how long we were living broke for and the fundament...
Dec 11, 2014•32 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/remoteceo/ We are talking about what it means to be a remote CEO. This episode is essentially going to be story time with Ian. We discuss what it is like to leave the office for extended periods of time, and some essential mindset stuff that goes into being a successful remote CEO. We also talk about how our portable business has been able to grow five times year over year with Bossman and I living away from the office, and the dissect the steps that it takes to step a...
Dec 04, 2014•25 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/espressoenglish/ This week I've invited Shayna from EspressoEnglish.net to share how she was able to build a successful info product business that allows her to live anywhere in the world with just a laptop and $1,500 in capital. We're gonna talk about how Shayna drives hundreds of thousands of visitors to her site every month, how she turns those visitors into leads and customers, how she produces her info products and how she values them. We'll also talk quite a bit ...
Nov 27, 2014•40 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/patrick/ Patrick McKenzie from Kalzumeus.com has been one of my favorite bloggers for over half of a decade. Patrick has a storied history of writing long-form pieces about the experiences of starting bootstrap software businesses, and is an expert at optimizing for non-cash currencies. In this week's episode we dig deep into Patrick's business philosophy, including how he has been able to build a powerhouse blog that is followed by some of the most influential people ...
Nov 20, 2014•1 hr 16 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/returntoapprentice/ Our old friend and former team member Taylor Pearson from TaylorPearson.me has come by this week to help us have a broad, round-table conversation about team building. We talk about the ways that Ian and I have done it, and Taylor shares some insider insight from having been on our team. We also answer a question from a young listener about whether he should be learning a skill set like SEO or diving headfirst into his own business.
Nov 13, 2014•27 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/focus/ TropicalMBA is a podcast dedicated to the growing movement of location independent entrepreneurs. Every week, location independent entrepreneurs all over the world will leave us questions and comments in our voicemail. This week, we are answering a whole bunch of those voicemails, including questions about why you should be starting or joining a mastermind group, some of the best things about being an expatriate and why branding is really about building relation...
Nov 07, 2014•33 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/dcbkk2014/ Bossman and I are in Tokyo this week following our annual DC BKK Conference in Thailand. We are gonna be recapping how the event went, and reminiscing about some of our favorite speakers. We're also going to be talking about what we've learned about throwing events, what we are planning to do in the future and sharing our advice for people that are looking to get the most out of all these upcoming conferences.
Oct 30, 2014•28 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/hustle/ In the aftermath of DC BKK, The Bossman hopped a plane this week on his way to Tokyo, so we've decided to re-visit one of our favorite episodes of all time. I was a little hesitant about this episode when we first published it three years ago, but since that time, we have received a lot of feedback about how important this episode has been to our listeners. This episode came at a time when we had our first $100,000 month, and we still stand behind these 6 key p...
Oct 23, 2014•21 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/scale/ Bossman and I are in Bangkok, gearing up for DC BKK, and we are chatting with our friend Jacob Puhl this week. Jacob is one of our speakers here for the event, and he has built a really unique and successful productized service business, geared primarily toward the dental industry. He really has a lot of valuable knowledge on how to scale a business. We're gonna be talking about how to overcome the complications of investing in and expanding a service business a...
Oct 16, 2014•20 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/canton/ The Canton Fair is taking place this October, so I was really happy to run into my old friend Matt Kowolak from HighCappin.com. Matt has been living as an entrepreneur in China for ten years, and he is the person I go to whenever I have a question about the country. We chat it up about the history of the fair, what it feels like to attend such a historic trade show and what kind of opportunities exist there. He also shares a broad overview of what living in Chi...
Oct 09, 2014•30 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/semiprocycling/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/semiprocycling/ Podcast 35:04 | Download | Stitcher | iTunes | Comment This week, we’re going to talk all about how to find your unique voice in the marketplace, and how to build an entertaining and informative show that can help you generate a location-independent income. Damien Ruse from SemiProCycling.com is doing just that. He is a...
Oct 02, 2014•35 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/fatcat/ I'm in Bangkok this week, getting set up for DC BKK and I was very excited to run into our good friend David Hehenberger from WPCast.fm and FatCatApps.com. His products help marketers drive conversions from their Wordpress sites. This is really a full-circle moment for us, as David used to edit the show in the early days of our Podcast. David has since downshifted to focus on building a software company that he felt would be sustainable and generate income on h...
Sep 25, 2014•24 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/1konline/ With over 260 episodes, some of our listeners have been asking us which episodes of our show are the best to share with people who want to learn more about the location independent lifestyle. We thought this posed a pretty interesting challenge, and we've decided to create a five part series that people can download to get an overall sense of what the location independent startup community is all about. On this first episode in the series, we are going to be ...
Sep 18, 2014•41 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/gettingtraction/ On last week's episode, our good friend Taylor Pearson mentioned that one of the most universally fundamental traits that all successful entrepreneurs have is sales skills. We're gonna be talking about how to build that skill set so you can get your first 100 customers. We are also answering a bunch of listener questions about fighting the Amazon beast, how to get the most out of events, and our thoughts on visiting the U.S. after an extended time abro...
Sep 11, 2014•31 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/portablebar/ We put Taylor Pearson in charge of our Portable Bar company in its infancy, and he helped us grow our business 527% in the first 18 months, to the point where we are consistently having healthy mid 5-figure months. This week, Bossman is back and we are chatting with Taylor about what it's like to evolve from a small business that is just keeping the lights on to a real significant source of wealth. We're talking about the old-school tactics we used to grow...
Sep 04, 2014•31 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/duckduckgo/ As entrepreneurs, Google has really become a huge part of a lot of our everyday lives. The privacy concerns that have come to light over the last few years are legitimate, and way we think about our internet use is changing. Gabriel Weinberg is the Founder of DuckDuckGo , a search engine that is steadily gaining market share by offering real privacy. He is also an angel investor, and has taken investments from some of the most successful venture capitalists...
Aug 28, 2014•39 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/travelfish/ This week I was lucky enough to catch up with Stuart McDonald, the founder of Travelfish, which one of the most respected sites on the web for South East Asia travel information. If you peak over the shoulder of a random backpacker in Bangkok cafes, expect to see a "TravelFish" URL along with Facebook blue.
Aug 21, 2014•57 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/affiliate/ Bossman is back this week and we are talking about affiliate relationships. How do you get others to promote your products? We'll talk about how to "write the religion" and give potential content publishers a reason to tap into your narrative. We also field several listener questions, including what to look for when hiring your first employee, and the ins and outs of establishing business credit.
Aug 14, 2014•32 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/mileage/ Bossman is on vacation this week, so I've invited my friend Erik Paquet from Abroaders.com on to the show to talk all about mileage, point redemption, how to fly business class as often as possible and much more. In the Dynamite Circle, Erik is widely regarded as the go-to guy for travel hacking. We are also going to be discussing how he has been able to use his unique set of skills to launch a productized service business.
Aug 07, 2014•32 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/fail/ Will you succeed or fail as a digital nomad? Becoming a successful location-independent entrepreneur isn't guaranteed. Some of the skills it takes to become a successful digital nomad take years to develop. This week, we are talking about the four major differences we have seen between successful digital nomads and those who have failed.
Jul 31, 2014•23 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/mastermind/ Having a mastermind group, and perpetuating a mastermind group, is a great way to handle some of the emotional struggles of having your own business. They are just as fun as a poker party, but they can change your life. Masterminds are the reason we started this podcast. We've done a lot of in-person masterminds, and they are a great way to grow a community and connect with your audience. This week, we're talking about the power, the pitfalls, and the proce...
Jul 24, 2014•21 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/ip/ We're talking about protecting our intellectual property and business through copyright, trademarks and patents. This stuff can be expensive for entrepreneurs, but it is incredibly important. There are so many reasons a bootstrapping attitude might differ from a more corporate or startup philosophy regarding these issues. We'll also chat about our upcoming event in Austin, T.X. and why we have decided to sell our cat furniture business.
Jul 17, 2014•23 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/freetime/ We're getting into some advanced level stuff this week. As entrepreneurs, many of us have achieved what we've built by putting in insane amounts of hours on the phone or behind the laptop. How can we re-train ourselves to step back and enjoy what we have been working for? This week, we're outlining 5 different ways to go after some meaning with that time that you've been creating.
Jul 10, 2014•25 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/quest/ This week, we're talking about the four elements of the "Hero's Quest" that every entrepreneur embarks on. This episode is all about looking back and understanding the first six months of taking off on a new project or a new business, the struggle that it is, and how valuable that can end up being on the narrative of your life. We also answer some listener questions, including one about cold calling a huge corporation to make a sale.
Jul 03, 2014•29 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/bedphones/ Bossman and I are celebrating our 250th episode this week. We're also talking to our good friend Eric Dubs, the creator of Bedphones . Eric has found success in the consumer electronics market, despite facing competition from some huge brands. Eric has been able to build a genuine Four Hour Work Week product business through automation. We'll talk about what went into the creation of Eric's product, how he was able to get it featured on platforms like Dr. Oz...
Jun 26, 2014•44 min
http://www.tropicalmba.com/churn/ We're talking about Churn rate, and everything we can learn from it. Bossman and I are by no means experts on the topic, but we've dug up a plethora of information to share on Churn rate analysis. We'll discuss how to use this information to provide more value to your clients and keep them around for longer. We also answer some listener questions about the FBAR deadline and how we approach the frequency at which we create podcast content.
Jun 19, 2014•33 min
