Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle
Episodes
TMBA 651: Finding Hope in The Aftermath of Loss
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s guest, Sherry Walling, is a respected clinical psychologist who specialises in entrepreneur mental health. She’s also the host of Zen Foun...
TMBA 650: DeFi For The Long Game
19 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Unless you’ve been living in a cave recently (and if you have, hit us up because we’d love to hear about that), you’ll be aware that crypto has ...
TMBA 649: Mailbag: Revenge Traveling, Founder Fit And Managing Net Worth
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On today’s show Dan and Ian are reaching into the mailbag to reflect on some topics that listeners have asked about. These include an update on the ...
TMBA 648: What Can Entrepreneurs Learn From PE Businesses, And Vice Versa?
05 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s show challenges bootstrapped entrepreneurs to think about lessons they can draw from high-income private equity funded business, especially ...
TMBA 647: The Opportunities In Bringing Technology To ‘The Real World’
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lots of entrepreneurs and listeners to this show are inspired to create ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’ type businesses by founding e-commerce stores and ag...
TMBA 646: Key Takeaways From Our First Event In Playa Del Carmen
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s show is kinda a de-brief of our recent in-person event in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. Dan chats Jeff Pecaro, who has worked with us for ne...
TMBA 645: Getting Started With A Regular Review Process
14 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever wanted to get a regular review process going but just never get round to it because it seems so overwhelming? This show is for you. Dr ...
TMBA 644: When Your Lifestyle Business Can No Longer Support You
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
One of the themes of this show has always been ‘learning by doing’, and evolving your businesses based on that. But what about when your circumsta...
TMBA643: Don't Build Your Castle On Someone Else's Land
31 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show Jeff Fruhwirth talks to Dan about how a failed foray into e-commerce, and a change in personal circumstances, caused him to pivo...
TMBA 642: Breaking Through Plateaus, And Other Important ‘P’s
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week Dan and Ian share updates about progress at ‘Dynamite Jobs’. Drawing on some sage advice from recent guest Ayman Al-Abdullah, they’ve ...
TMBA 641: Deciding It’s Time To ‘Get Up And Move Over To Another Table’
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The last time Allen Walton was on the show he talked about the origins of his e-commerce business SpyGuy grew out of a difficult period when he was li...
TMBA 640: Who’s In Your Van?
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
One of the biggest challenges we discuss on the show is how to take businesses over the “five figure” hurdle. Today’s guest Ayman Al-Abdullah ha...
TMBA 639: Agency Break
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On today’s show, GrowthHit’s Jim Huffman talks to Dan about the pros and cons of running a successful agency, and how he’s recently been encoura...
TMBA 638: Judging When To Jump On The Tailwind Of a Side-Project
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
‘Side hustles’ are a long running theme on this show: those ‘weekends and evenings’ projects that many entrepreneurs have in their back pocket...
TMBA 637: Our Favorite Books In The Time of Pandemic
17 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Back by popular demand, Dan and Kyla Gardner blow the dust off their bookshelves, and fire up their Kindle and Audible libraries to share some of thei...
TMBA 636: Affiliate Marketing and The Stair Step Approach
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Affiliate Marketing businesses have been around way longer than this podcast, and it’s a model that receives its fair share of criticism, especially...
TMBA 635: The AntiWork Movement
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The ‘AntiWork Movement’ has been with us for decades but, through the pandemic, it’s gained a new traction over at the online discussion forum ‘...
TMBA 634: The ‘Downside Protection’ of Investing in Bootstrapped Businesses
27 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Tiny Seed co-founder Rob Walling joins Dan to share insights about why bootstrapped businesses, particularly Software as a Service (SaaS), are becomin...
TMBA633: Mailbag: Managing Teams and Creating Communities
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this week’s episode Dan and Ian respond to some listener questions, thoughts and comments, including: managing relationships within a team as it ...
TMBA632: A Journey From Productized to SaaS, Plus The Return Of ‘Donate a Business Idea’
13 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Productized or Software as a Service? A hot topic often discussed on TMBA. Of course, there’s no right or wrong answer but on today’s show Brian C...
TMBA631: Investing, Writing and Regrets, with Financial Samurai
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For our first episode of the New Year Dan talks to one of our favorite writers in the investment space, Sam Dogen, author of Financial Samurai. Starte...
TMBA630: Investing in the Age of Autonomy
30 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s show Dan talks to Jake Ryan, CIO of the crypto hedge fund TradeCraft Capital and author of ‘Crypto Asset Investing in the Age of Autono...
TMBA629: Revisiting Some of Our Favorite Moments from 2021
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
2021 has been a landmark year for this show, and for entrepreneurs all around the globe. Though the Covid pandemic has lingered on, we have seen borde...
TMBA628: Staying True to Yourself in Business
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week's guest has done something that so many entrepreneurs aspire to do: they have turned a bespoke creative shop into a truly successful interne...
TMBA627: Building an Agency You Can Exit From
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode is all about building, scaling, and ultimately selling an agency. We know agencies don't usually get a lot of love on the show but the...
TMBA626: Talking Shop: Business Goals, Inflation, and Our Favorite Locations
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We've been receiving a lot of requests from our listeners lately for an old-school "talking shop" type of episode. This week, we're doing just that, a...
TMBA625: Living Outside Your Comfort Zone
25 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There is nothing we love more than an entrepreneur who operates outside of convention, and this week's guest is no exception. Tynan is a bestselling a...
TMBA624: The Emotional Toll of the Entrepreneurial Journey
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode is all about an emotional journey that was born out of this very podcast, and the unique mental health challenges that entrepreneurs f...
TMBA623: It's Never Too Late to Find a Business Partner
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When today's guest spoke at our recent event in Mexico City, we were taken by his story because it presented a captivating alternative to the traditio...
TMBA622: Mailbag: How Do You Stay Motivated After You Succeed?
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We are once again reaching into the mailbag this week to answer questions from the Tropical MBA audience. We'll be answering questions that our listen...
TMBA621: 10 Key Trends in the Digital Nomad Community for 2022
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It was such a breath of fresh air to see so many entrepreneurs in Mexico City last week at DC MEX, our first in-person event since 2019. We had so muc...
TMBA620: The Upside of Running an Agency
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today's podcast is all about a business model that sometimes gets a bad rap on this show: "the agency". We recently bumped into our friend Johnathan ...
TMBA619: Does Your Business Need an "Operating System"?
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In last week's podcast, Carrie McKeegan shared how she has been using author Gino Wickman's EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) to help her grow an...
TMBA618: Exploring Alternative Education Options for Nomadic Families
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We've spoken at great length on this podcast about how the Covid pandemic has forced us to make changes in the way that we run our businesses. This we...
TMBA617: Once Upon a Time in Mexico
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It has been nearly two years since we've hosted an event for the members of our private membership forum The Dynamite Circle. DCMEX, our first offici...
TMBA616: The True Cost of Burnout, Anxiety, and Entrepreneurial Depression
23 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode is all about mental health, depression, anxiety, and the effect that these things can have on the way that we run our businesses. Benn...
TMBA615: 8 Simple Steps for Improving Your Sales Funnel
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode is full of actionable advice for anyone who is looking to improve their revenue and optimize their sales. We were taking notes thr...
TMBA614: The Lifestyle Ladder
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week's podcast is inspired by a blog post that we published back in 2014. That post was titled "What is the Real Cost of the Permanent Travel Lif...
TMBA613: Is It Possible to Raise a Family as a Digital Nomad?
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We've seen a lot of great conversations take place in our private community The Dynamite Circle as of late. One of our favorites came in the form of a...
TMBA612: Mailbag: Avoiding Drama in Your Business
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We are once again reaching into the mailbag this week to answer some pressing questions from the Tropical MBA audience. This is a somewhat unorthodox ...
TMBA611: Should You Bootstrap or Seek Funding For Your Startup?
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today's guest has been on an incredible journey that touches on so many of our favorite entrepreneurial milestones. Derek Pankaew is the co-founder of...
TMBA610: Building Deal Flow from Social Media and Content Marketing
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode is particularly insightful for entrepreneurs who are looking to improve their social media or content marketing game, and for those of...
TMBA609: Is "DeFi" the Future of Finance?
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we are once again diving into the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Gerbz is a regular contributor to this podcast and our...
TMBA608: The History of Digital Nomadism
29 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The term "Digital Nomad" has been beaten to death over the years, but it still means a lot to those of us who have identified with that label. James C...
TMBA607: The Lonely Path of the Solopreneur
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Longtime listeners know that Dan and Ian have been business partners for many years, and sometimes it's hard for us to imagine what it would be like t...
TMBA606: Reflections on 10 Years of Running an Online Community
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We aren't usually the type for navel-gazing, but this summer marks an important milestone for us. 10 years ago, our desire to "find our tribe" led us...
TMBA605: What Makes a Great Remote Employee?
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode was inspired by a question from a listener. Katie recently graduated with her master's degree, and while she appreciated the insig...
TMBA604: Is Real Estate the Endgame for Entrepreneurs?
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nick Huber has been on a wild ride since we last spoke to him in 2019. Nick is the host of a podcast called The Sweaty Startup, and at the time he wa...
TMBA603: Returning to Nomadic Life
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Summer is here, and it's starting to feel like things are returning to "normal." For many of us in the community, that means that we're finally going...
TMBA602: 5 Strategies for Growing an 8-Figure Business
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A few weeks ago we said something on this podcast in jest, but one of our more attentive listeners latched onto it. "I find myself some days waking u...
TMBA601: Creating Meaningful Online Communities
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We've learned over the years that being a part of a community of like-minded people is one of the most valuable experiences that you can have as an en...
TMBA600: Why It's So Hard to Replicate Success with Derrick Reimer
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode is full of so many recurring themes that we've seen over the years on this podcast, from the unique struggles that SaaS businesses...
TMBA599: The Art of Acquiring Businesses
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We've shared a lot of stories on this podcast from entrepreneurs who have started their own businesses, but one strategy we've increasingly seen to ac...
TMBA598: Winning with Twitter and Writing for the Web with David Perell
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode is all about creating content, in particular, how to create written content that people actually want to read. David Perell is the co...
TMBA597: Five Things We Can't Stop Thinking About in May 2021
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week's podcast is a little bit out of the ordinary. While we have been busier than ever this month over at Dynamite Jobs, we still can't help bu...
TMBA596: What's Really Stopping You From Achieving Wealth?
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to another episode in our long-running series The Re-Readables, where we revisit some of our favorite business books to find out if they ...
TMBA595: Hiring Tips for Remote Companies in 2021
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode features insider knowledge on the processes behind hiring and recruiting remote talent from someone who has been deeply involved i...
TMBA594: Predictions About the Near Future - The Sovereign Individual
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode is another installment of "The Re-Readables", a series in which we revisit some of our favorite business books to find out if they...
TMBA593: How to Get a Great Remote Job
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We've been seeing some truly explosive growth at Dynamite Jobs since the start of 2021, and we've been helping more businesses than ever find great re...
TMBA592: An Entrepreneurial Approach to Investing
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What if your knowledge as an entrepreneur could benefit you as an investor? We've talked about cryptocurrency and unorthodox investments in the past o...
TMBA591: The Surprising Habits of Wealthy People with Noah Kagan
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our good friend Noah Kagan recently published a video that caught our attention. Noah is the founder of AppSumo.com, and his YouTube channel has been ...
TMBA590: Mailbag: How Long Does it Really Take to Achieve Freedom?
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We always love receiving thoughtful questions from Tropical MBA listeners around the world. A few weeks ago, a winter storm in Texas forced us to re-r...
TMBA589: Creating a Software Business Without Technical Expertise
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We've been devoting a lot of time on this podcast recently to SaaS or "Software as a Service" businesses. That's because we love the upside of SaaS, ...
TMBA588: Getting Comfortable With Failure
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to entrepreneurship, failure can often be more important than winning. So many of the greatest success stories start with failure becaus...
TMBA587: The Real Problem With Fake Reviews
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When we received an email from today's guest, we were fascinated by his story and we knew that we had to speak to him. Curtis Boyd is the founder of t...
TMBA586: The Reformed "Bad Boss"
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After a wild and dramatic week in Austin TX, we are excited to return to our regularly scheduled programming and to highlight an entrepreneur with a u...
TMBA585: There's No Business Like Snow Business
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Austin, TX was hit by a very unique winter storm preventing the team from putting out a full episode this week.
TMBA584: From Services Failure to Software Success
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode features a story with a lot of familiar themes. Today's guest started out as so many of us do, with a weekend side hustle. Ama...
TMBA583: Building a Business With the Intention to Sell
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today's podcast is about a topic that near and dear to our hearts and one that we've actually written a book about in the past. Longtime listeners kno...
TMBA582: The Upwork Hustle
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Since the start of the year, we've been focusing heavily on stories about starting new businesses as well as what we believe are the "fundamentals" of...
TMBA581: 4 Frameworks for Starting a New Business in 2021
21 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We've been spending a lot of time over the past few weeks talking about the "business fundamentals", or the everyday habits that we believe entreprene...
TMBA580: Mailbag: Making New Moves in the New Year
14 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
January is one of our favorite months of the year because it's a time for starting over, setting new goals, and making plans for how to achieve them. ...
TMBA579: The Price of Tomorrow
07 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Every once in a while a book comes around that completely captivates us and leaves us with more questions than answers. When we discovered "The Price ...
TMBA578: It's All About the Fundamentals
31 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This is the time of year when so many people are making goals and resolutions. These types of things are great, but we've always believed that the bes...
TMBA577: A Wild and Unforgettable Year in Review
24 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
To say that the last twelve months were unpredictable would be a massive understatement. For ourselves and so many other entrepreneurs, the COVID outb...
TMBA576: The Kings of Crypto
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Like so many other entrepreneurs, we are fascinated by cryptocurrencies. We are naturally drawn to the technology because we believe it has the potent...
TMBA575: A Blue Collar Origin Story
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Even though 2020 has been a difficult year for some entrepreneurs, it has arguably been an all-time year for many people running eCommerce businesses....
TMBA574: The Power of Entrepreneurial Persistence
03 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We are reaching back into the mailbag this week to answer questions submitted by Tropical MBA listeners around the world. In this edition, we'll be fo...
TMBA573: The Art of Personal Blogging
26 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode is about something that is incredibly near and dear to our hearts: personal blogging and what it means to write on the internet. ...
TMBA572: 4 Things We've Learned From Building a New Software Platform
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We've been receiving a ton of requests recently from listeners who want to hear an "old school" episode, so this week Dan and Ian are jumping on the h...
TMBA571: There is Only One Kevin Kelly
12 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For our money, there is nobody quite like Kevin Kelly. Not only is he one of the co-founders of Wired Magazine, but he is also the author of some of o...
TMBA570: Productizing Your Way to Freedom
05 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today's podcast is all about one listener of this show who took the concept of productizing and applied it incredibly well at a very high velocity. M...
TMBA569: An Ode to DCBKK
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Longtime listeners know that this is typically the time of year that we host DC BKK, our annual Dynamite Circle event in Bangkok. Each year, hundreds ...
TMBA568: ‘I’m Fiscally Bitcoin and Socially Ethereum’
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It goes without saying that as internet entrepreneurs, we are fascinated by the future of money, and it's hard to talk about the future of money witho...
TMBA567: A Shopify Software Business Success Story
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We've been devoting a lot of time to talking about software businesses in recent weeks. One of the reasons we are so fascinated by them is that despit...
TMBA566: Why Do SaaS Businesses Fail?
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode is all about software startups, and there are very few people more capable or qualified to talk about them than today's guest. Simon P...
TMBA565: The Origins of the 1,000 Day Principle
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode features a longtime friend and mentor who shared an idea with us many years ago that changed the way that we thought about entrepreneu...
TMBA564: The Knowledge Gap vs The Efficiency Gap Revisited (Again)
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We talk quite a bit on this podcast about services businesses and the sorts of problems that they seek to solve for their customers. You may recall ...
TMBA563: How Software With a Service (SwaS) Startups Can Succeed Big in Traditional Industries
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of the promises of entrepreneurship is that there are opportunities to make money all around us if we can learn how to recognize them. Laurence Ta...
TMBA562: Mailbag: Freedom, Location, and Love in the Age of COVID
10 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We love hearing from listeners of this show. We put out the call a few weeks ago for listeners to send us your stories, and you responded to us in abu...
TMBA561: The Smoking Tire
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of our favorite things about this podcast is that we get to talk to people who have inspired us and entertained us over the years. Matt Farah is c...
TMBA560: 3 Strategies for Acquiring Wealth
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A few weeks ago on this podcast, we mentioned that we had started writing a new book based around The 1,000 Day Principle, a recurring topic we've tal...
TMBA559: A Summer in Review
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As the dog days of summer are coming to a close, we've decided to address several interesting topics that have come across our desk throughout the mon...
TMBA558: Are You Running the Wrong Kind of Business?
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In past episodes, we've talked about "Founder Fit", or the idea that you should be running the type of business that is best suited to your own person...
TMBA557: Ascending the Staircase
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rob Walling is no stranger to many of the listeners of this show. Rob is the host of a brilliant podcast called Startups for the Rest of Us, where he ...
TMBA556: Navigating the Dip
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's podcast, we are sharing some personal updates, as well as three specific updates about our core businesses. We are also announcing that for...
TMBA555: Are Productized Services Overrated?
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Productized services have long been a subject of discussion on this podcast. They are a relatively attractive business model, especially among first-t...
TMBA554: A Healthy Equilibrium
16 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher Gimmer is the Co-Founder and CEO of Snappa, a SaaS (Software as a Service) business that allows users to create online graphics quickly an...
TMBA553: Protecting Your Passion
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It started with an innocuous-looking image of a yellow aeroplane and ended with a number of threatening letters from a law firm on behalf of the trave...
TMBA552: The Art of Buying and Selling Web Domains
02 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On today's podcast, we're excited to finally reveal that our remote jobs platform Dynamite Jobs is officially a ".com business". After three years of ...