In last week's episode, we took a look at the early days of Dan and Ian's relationship and the circumstances that led to their business partnership. Today's podcast is the second part of that series, and it's all about the next chapter. In this episode, you'll hear how Dan and Ian bought their business partner out of their product company, the origins of this podcast, how they started their membership community The Dynamite Circle, and much more.
Oct 24, 2019•54 min
In the ten years that Dan and Ian have been recording this podcast, the number one thing that they hear from listeners is that they want to know more about their story. Today's episode is the first part of a two-part documentary series where Dan and Ian open up about their own personal history. In this episode, you will hear why they each decided to move to San Diego, California, the circumstances that led to their meeting, how they became friends, and ultimately how they decided to become busin...
Oct 17, 2019•1 hr 3 min
One of Dan and Ian's favorite things to do is to reach into the mailbag to answer questions from listeners of this show and today they are doing just that. On this week's podcast, you'll hear answers to listener-submitted questions on a variety of topics including how to think about cash flow in your business, what makes a good entrepreneurmobile in 2019, and more. Stick around until the end of the episode for an in-depth update on Dynamite Deals.
Oct 10, 2019•51 min
A few weeks ago, Dan and Ian invited Nick Huber on to the show to talk about his storage business Storage Squad. During that conversation, Nick shared the story of how he built a successful "old school" business by applying his technical knowledge to a less competitive market. After we stopped recording, that conversation took an interesting turn when Nick started opening up to us about his philosophy for building labor-intensive businesses that he likes to call "Sweaty Startups". On today's pod...
Oct 03, 2019•50 min
Dan and Ian opened up on this podcast recently about a cease and desist letter that they received. Today's guest heard that episode and was compelled to share his own story about a similar legal battle. Dylan Smith is the co-founder of Keg Smiths (https://www.kegsmiths.com/), a company that manufactures and sells mini beer kegs, and he has received his fair share of cease and desist letters in his entrepreneurial career. Dylan joins us this week to share a riveting story about how a cease and de...
Sep 26, 2019•40 min
Today's episode features an in-depth look into one particular entrepreneurial journey that Dan and Ian have been following for a decade. Longtime listeners will certainly be familiar with Travis Jamison. Travis has joined us on this show many times in the past, and you've likely heard ads for his newest company Smash Digital on the show in recent weeks. Travis has been on a pretty epic journey since we first met, not just living and working in many countries, but he has become a hugely successfu...
Sep 19, 2019•1 hr 24 min
One of Dan and Ian's favorite things to talk about on this show is the role that technology plays in our lives. They are particularly curious about the ways that new technology and social media can affect our ability to be productive and successful entrepreneurs. Today's guest is a bonafide expert when it comes to technological addiction and how to fight it. Nir Eyal is an accomplished and thoughtful writer on the topic of behavioral design. Nir gained notoriety for writing the book Hooked: How ...
Sep 12, 2019•1 hr
A listener of this podcast recently reached out to Dan and Ian to let them know what he was up to. They were so inspired by his story of "old-school" entrepreneurship that they knew they needed to invite him on to the show to share it. Nick Huber is one of the founders of Storage Squad, a storage company that he started with his business partner Dan in 2011 and has grown to nearly 3 million dollars in sales. Recently, they have begun diversifying into self-storage as well. Nick joins us this wee...
Sep 05, 2019•44 min
Dan and Ian are well aware that the entrepreneurial journey isn't made up entirely of success stories. Many entrepreneurs listening to this podcast are struggling right now. They might be on the fence about becoming an entrepreneur or reconsidering their decision to become one in the first place. We've talked many times on this podcast about the "1,000 Day Rule"; this idea that it takes roughly 1,000 days of serious hard work to replace the money that you make from your job. Anders Ronnau recent...
Aug 29, 2019•43 min
Today's episode is all about something that Dan and Ian still find magical about entrepreneurship. That is, if you find the right thing to write about, the internet will still allow you to make a great living off of it. This week's guest was able to do exactly that with essentially one blog post. Ryan Robinson is the host of a podcast called The Side Hustle Project and he runs a fantastic blog over at RyRob.com. He recently wrote a piece on his that blog about how to start a blog and make money ...
Aug 22, 2019•56 min
Dan and Ian recently came across a question in their private forum, The Dynamite Circle. "How important has your network been to your success?" The power of having the right connections is absolutely fundamental to growing a business, especially a location independent one. On today's episode, we are sharing some of our own personal approaches to networking. These are useful whether you're going to a conference, picking up a phone, or talking to people in your industry. We're also going to discus...
Aug 15, 2019•47 min
A few weeks ago on this podcast, Dan and Ian were talking about some of their biggest pet peeves. In that episode, Ian lamented that the quality of flip flops available for purchase had drastically declined. What happened next should come as no surprise. A few listeners of this show reached out to us to let us know that they had started their own product business manufacturing flip flops. Jeremy Stewart is the co-founder of Hari Mari, which he started with his wife Leila. Hari Mari manufactures ...
Aug 08, 2019•51 min
Dan and Ian love hearing from listeners of this show. So many times, people reach out to us with thoughtful questions, and one of our favorite things to do is to answer them on this podcast. On today's episode, we are reaching into the mailbag to answer a variety of questions that you submitted to us via email or voicemail. We'll be discussing a broad range of topics including how long it really takes to get your business off the ground, leveraging locations at the various stages of your entrepr...
Aug 01, 2019•44 min
Dan and Ian have seen it time and time again where entrepreneurs can sort of hit a brick wall with their business. But what if the problem doesn't lie with you, but with the type of business you're running? Sometimes people can possess all of the right skills to be successful, but they haven't put themselves in the right situation to succeed. Today's episode is all about "Founder Fit", or the idea that the business you are working on should be the right kind of project that suits your skillset. ...
Jul 25, 2019•31 min
A few months ago, Dan and Ian asked the listeners of this show to respond to a survey about The Tropical MBA Podcast. We wanted to gain a richer understanding of the types of people who are listening to this podcast, so we can continue to create content that is relevant to their interests. We were surprised and delighted not only by the number of people that filled it out but by the types of responses that we received as well. We read every single response that we received from the survey and on...
Jul 18, 2019•45 min
Today's episode is unlike anything else Dan and Ian have ever recorded on this podcast. It all started with a cease and desist letter that we received via email at the beginning of the year. That letter was from an in-house counsel at a very large company and it alleged that The Tropical MBA Podcast was potentially infringing on their intellectual property. We decided to reach out to our friend Eric Misterovich from Revision Legal. Revision Legal is a law firm that specializes in working with bu...
Jul 11, 2019•47 min
Dan and Ian are excited because they get to spend today's podcast doing one of their favorite things: complaining. This isn't just their everyday grinding of axes, though. On this week's episode, we are taking our own stab at a fun an unique concept popularized by the BBC in a classic television series called "Room 101". The term "Room 101" comes from George Orwell's 1984. In Orwell's fictional world, it was a sort of torture chamber that thought criminals are banished to. In this episode, Dan a...
Jul 04, 2019•40 min
Hosting this podcast has allowed Dan and Ian to meet thousands of entrepreneurs over the last several years. Many of those entrepreneurs have gone on to become very wealthy people, and throughout our conversations with those people, we have found some common threads to the ways that wealthy people behave. One constant we've discovered is that you have to have a strategy for becoming wealthy and that there are several common strategies that people use to varying degrees of success. On today's sho...
Jun 27, 2019•41 min
Dan and Ian love stories where creative people find success through entrepreneurship. Truthfully, it's not something we have had a chance to talk about much on this podcast, but art and entrepreneurship don't have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, the skillsets can actually be complementary. Today's guest has figured that out herself, as she went from working a 9-to-5 while living with her parents to traveling the world on her own terms. Cat Coquilette is an artist and illustrator who has made ...
Jun 20, 2019•1 hr 2 min
On this week's show, Dan and Ian are talking about getting real with yourself about what you need to do to succeed. Very few people are more qualified to talk about that than John Ainsworth. John is the CEO and founder of Data Driven Marketing, which builds, fixes, and optimizes automated sales funnels. Those sales funnels are the mechanisms that many online businesses use to communicate with customers and entice them to buy their products. As such, John has seen how a lot of businesses get it w...
Jun 13, 2019•1 hr 5 min
Dan and Ian have been spending much of their time thinking about remote work these days. Ever since they started their new business Dynamite Jobs, they have been seeking more information about the remote work ecosystem than ever before. One of the things that they've realized is that remote work isn't necessarily for everybody. Just like the traditional office setting, it can come with its own set of challenges. Since they haven't worked in an office in many years, they thought it would be fun t...
Jun 06, 2019•43 min
On today's podcast, Dan and Ian are following up with the subject of one of the most popular episodes in recent years. Tommy Griffith is the founder of ClickMinded, an online SEO training course that he started while he was working at Paypal. Tommy joined us two and a half years ago to talk about how he started that business as a Saturday Morning Side Hustle. When we last spoke with Tommy in 2017, he was about to quit one of the best jobs in the world as the head of SEO at AirBNB to travel the w...
May 30, 2019•54 min
Dan and Ian have heard many variations of the same question over the years: "I want to be an entrepreneur, but how do I get started?" Today's guest has some really practical insight into what it means to take the leap into starting your own business. Dom Wells started out, as many do, building affiliate marketing sites. He's gone on to establish several successful spin-off businesses from what was effectively a side hustle, all while he was still working a full-time job teaching English in Taipe...
May 23, 2019•49 min
Today's show is sort of like eavesdropping on a conversation that Dan and Ian often have when the microphones are off. Namely, that there are some things that people just don't tell you about entrepreneurship. Maybe it's because people in the entrepreneurial world don't like to come across as naysayers or know-it-alls, but the reality of what it's like to be an entrepreneur can often be hard to come by. Whether it's the fact that entrepreneurs undersell the amount of planning and work that goes ...
May 16, 2019•33 min
Recently, Dan and Ian have been revisiting some of their favorite books on this podcast in a recurring series that we like to call "The Re-Readables." This week, we are digging into a classic entrepreneurial book that was suggested to us by our friend, author, and frequent guest on this podcast, Kyla Gardner of KylaGardner.com. That book is Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad. In that book, Kiyosaki basically suggests that if you want to be rich and successful, you've got to ditch the middle-cla...
May 09, 2019•47 min
Dan and Ian have shared a lot of business success stories on this podcast over the years. We love sharing those stories on this show, but sometimes the tough experiences that entrepreneurs have endured are the ones that we learn from the most. Freddy Lansky is the co-founder of iChess, which sells chess videos, courses and DVDs online. Recently, Freddy decided to leave that business, choosing to dissolve an eight-year business partnership with one of his closest friends. On today's episode, Fred...
May 02, 2019•38 min
A few weeks ago, Dan and Ian hosted their annual Dynamite Circle event in Austin, Texas. They met many listeners of this show who traveled from all around the world to attend that event. Those entrepreneurs shared some incredible stories, insights, advice, and feedback with us, and we can't wait to talk about them. On today's podcast, we're discussing some of our biggest takeaways from DC Austin 2019, including one of the most common recurring themes that we've heard from entrepreneurs there tha...
Apr 25, 2019•52 min
Dan and Ian are fresh off of hosting their fourth Dynamite Circle event in Austin, Texas last week. This year, they decided to do something different, by bringing together their entire remote team from all around the world for a two-day team retreat in Austin following the event. For anyone with their own remote team who is considering something similar, this episode is for you. On this week's podcast, they are sharing their reflections from that experience. You'll hear what they learned from th...
Apr 18, 2019•54 min
A few weeks ago, Dan and Ian introduced a new series on this podcast called "The Re-Readables". In that series, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite books with a fresh perspective. This week's book is all about the "Muse", creativity, productivity, and how to get your best work out into the world. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield was published in 2002. Since then, it has inspired countless entrepreneurs, artists, writers, and creatives around the world. On today's show, we are re...
Apr 11, 2019•40 min
Dan and Ian speak with a lot of entrepreneurs on this show about the difficult decisions that they have to make. Today's guest is currently facing one of the biggest challenges in his business. You may remember Chris Cage from his previous appearances on this podcast. Chris is the founder of Greenbelly Meals, which manufactures high calorie, stoveless backpacking meals for athletes and hikers. Chris reached out to us about the recent troubles he's had hiring people. We thought it might be a good...
Apr 04, 2019•47 min
