Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle

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 decide who came out on top.

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.

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 complex.

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.

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 at how they and their network got there.

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 weekend long. In this weeks episode, we get called out on our Modern Cat Furniture business by listener Shayna and invoke the “do as we say, not as we do” maxim. We reveal our 3 step process on how to know when it’s time to hire and the differences between what we do, small businesses, and startups.

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 Dead,” Travis reveals how he’s still crushing it with top rankings

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 these are generally fixable, you just need to know how to adjust your mirrors.

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 Schramko? James has this baller way of dealing with that.” Needless to say Dan and Ian’s mancrushes run high – after listening to the interview you’ll develop a mind-crush too.

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 business trajectory that has taken them five years, multiple product lines, 10+ employees, world-wide travel destinations, a publishing venture, private mastermind community, and top iTunes podcast into the future.