Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle

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...

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...

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 , a company that manufactures and sells mini beer kegs, and he has received his fair share of cease and desist letters in his entrepreneurial c...

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 j...

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 thought...

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 mill...

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...

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 ove...

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 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 S...

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 t...

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", o...

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 type...

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 Er...

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 fi...

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 weal...

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 parent...

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...

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 i...

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 Tomm...

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...

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...

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, Kiyosa...

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 d...

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 D...