Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle

Latest Episodes:

TMBA506: The Power of In Person Aug 15, 2019

Show notes

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 discuss some specific networking archetypes we've seen, and how you might develop your own personal strategy for networking.

TMBA505: How to Choose Your Own Product Aug 08, 2019

Show notes

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 and sells premium flip flops across the globe.

On today's episode, Jeremy joins us to talk about how their company was founded, how his experience as a political consultant helped Hari Mari grow, and how they were able to go from ground zero to having their products sold in big box retail stores.

TMBA504: Mailbag: From the Hamster Wheel to the Flywheel Aug 01, 2019

Show notes

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 entrepreneurial journey, the dilemmas of sustainability, and a whole lot more.

TMBA503: What's Your 'Founder Fit'? Jul 25, 2019

Show notes

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. We'll be discussing four different founder archetypes that we've seen, what their secret weapons are, and which sorts of businesses we believe are best suited for each of these entrepreneurs. We'll also be sharing some of our favorite resources for each type of entrepreneur.

TMBA502: What We've Learned About Our Listeners Jul 18, 2019

Show notes

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 today's podcast, we are going to be sharing our thoughts about those survey responses.

We'll be discussing your insights, your criticisms, your positive feedback and the data that we learned about the listeners of this show.

Stick around to the end to hear a little bit more about how we plan to implement what we learned from that survey in the future of this podcast.

TMBA501: Cease and Desist Jul 11, 2019

Show notes

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 businesses that make money online.

Eric joins us on today's podcast to talk a little bit about intellectual property law, as well as the cease and desist letter that we received.

Make sure to stay tuned until the end of this episode to hear more about the ongoing nature of this situation.

TMBA500: An Entrepreneur's Trip to 'Room 101' Jul 04, 2019

Show notes

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 and Ian will each present three things that they want to complain about, and at the end of the episode, they are going to vote on which terrible things deserve to be banished to Room 101.

TMBA499: 5 Approaches to Getting Rich Jun 27, 2019

Show notes

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 show, we are going to be talking about five of the most common strategies to get rich that we have seen, which of those strategies resonate with us, and a whole lot more.

TMBA498: When Does an Artist Become an Entrepreneur? Jun 20, 2019

Show notes

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 a career licensing her artwork and designs through companies like Target, Urban Outfitters, and Bed Bath & Beyond.

On today's podcast, Cat joins us to share how she navigated the journey from her childhood bedroom to successful solopreneurship, without sacrificing her creative fulfillment along the way.

TMBA497: Success is Solving Other People's Problems Jun 13, 2019

Show notes

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 wrong, in particular, when it comes to knowing what their customer's problems are and figuring out how to solve them.

On today's episode, we're talking about how to get in better touch with your customers, how to sell them what they want, and how to avoid getting distracted by shiny objects.
As a bonus, John will also be nerding out about sales funnel information after the credits, so make sure to stick around for that.

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