In this week’s episode Dan and Ian respond to some listener questions, thoughts and comments, including: managing relationships within a team as it grows larger, some updates about Dynamite Jobs, and what’s involved in running masterminds and creating a community: “It's a really bad idea to copy something that's already successful but not copy what they did in the early days to be successful. When we talk about conception, we talk about what value it delivers to a small number of people today … and that value proposition is going to be clear to me on day one, so you got to start with a clear conception”.

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 Casel talks to Dan about the factors that contributed to him changing from one to the other by selling Audience Ops and starting ZipMessage and also the different challenges of the two: “With a productized service, it really was much more about the processes. And building a service that is highly repeatable … but in a SaaS, it's less about process, it's just much more about building. And every single month there's something new. It’s not only just building new features, but what's the next marketing channel that I can try to tap into and unlock a new pocket of customers.” You’ll also hear about Brian’s decision to take funding this time around, having always bootstrapped before and selling Audience Ops without using a broker. Plus, And the return of one our favorite participation games - ‘donate a business idea’.

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. Started in 2009, just as he was trying to dig his way out of losing 35% of his net worth due to the global financial crisis, Sam has been discussing investment strategies on his blog ever since. But ‘Financial Samurai’ is about so much more than that. In this episode Dan and Sam cover the importance of ‘parlay’ in your career, the downsides of ‘Financial Independence, Retire Early’, how he chooses topics to write about, and much more. “I try to write about stuff people care about. You can write about ‘The Five Best Travel Credit Cards’ but, come on, you just need one or two credit cards. Or you can write about ‘How To Get Paid Full Time While Working Only Two Hours A Day’. I mean, that's so much more interesting.” Disclaimer This episode is a personal discussion, it in no way constitutes financial advice - but you knew that, right?

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 Autonomy’, about why he believes the convergence of cryptocurrency and new technologies is creating a transformational environment as significant as the ‘Information Age’. “What we’ve seen, over the past decade or so, is innovation around automation. And that's been powerful, but it hasn't been transformational. It hasn't altered fundamentally how businesses operate. The last piece of the puzzle really was cryptocurrency, because it allows us to store, process and transfer economic value without human intervention … autonomy is the ultimate competitive advantage”.

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 borders slowly start to open up and digital nomads finally start to become nomadic once more. We even closed out the year by connecting with listeners of this show at our Dynamite Circle Holiday Party in Austin last week, the first event of its kind in the United States in more than two years. Through it all, we have been fortunate to talk to some incredibly captivating entrepreneurs on this podcast in 2021 and to hear their stories of resilience, innovation, turmoil, and triumph. In today's episode, we are revisiting some of our favorite moments on the podcast this year. You'll hear about how you can write better content for the internet, insights into the future of finance and money, the unique mental health challenges that entrepreneurs face, and so much more

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 internet business. Lisa Norman is the co-founder of Authentic Leather Patch Co. Together with her partner Ian, they have been manufacturing custom leather patches for clients around the US, which they stitch onto a variety of products. We personally love their hats, which are consistently the most sought-after swag at our Dynamite Circle events. Their story is not your typical "4-Hour Workweek" startup tale. What started in a small shop in California, has turned into a business that generated over 2 million in revenue last year. Lisa joins us this week to share the origins of Authentic Leather Patch Co., how they were able to grow their company to the heights it has reached today, how they have navigated the supply chain issues and uncertainty of Covid, and a whole lot more.

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 they can be a great way to get started, and an incredible stepping stone in your career. Jodie Cook describes herself as an "athlete, writer, and entrepreneur", and when she says athlete, she means it. She has represented the UK internationally, and she built her agency as a lifestyle business with the intention of complimenting her career as a competitive powerlifter. When the time came to sell that business, a social media consultancy that was founded around her name, not only did she have a very successful exit, she was able to walk away without any type of earnout period. Jodie joins us on this week's podcast to share her story. You'll hear about her strategies for landing different types of clients, how she was able to remove herself from "The Jodie Show" that she had created in her business, and a whole lot more.

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, and in typical Tropical MBA fashion, we are focusing on three specific topics that are top of mind as the year comes to a close. We start the episode off with a discussion about whether we believe we are on the correct path to achieve our goal of building an 8-figure business in the near future. The second segment is an in-depth look at the dreaded "I word" that we've been hearing so much about lately: Inflation, and the ramifications that it is having on entrepreneurs everywhere. Finally, we'll be wrapping up the episode with some lighter conversation, as we talk about some of our favorite locations for digital nomads and open up about our event schedule for 2022.

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 author and the creator of CruiseSheet, a website that helps travelers find great deals on cruises. He is also a former Pickup Artist or "PUA", and at one point was a professional gambler. We've been following his terrific blog at Tynan.com for many years, and we're fascinated by his ability to remain ahead of the curve when it comes to social trends on the internet. Tynan joins us this week to discuss his history in the controversial Pickup Artist subculture, his unique philosophies on wealth and personal finance, and what it truly means to live outside of your comfort zone.

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 face. Bunty SomRoy took a huge risk back in 2015 when he decided to volunteer at one of our Dynamite Circle events in Bangkok. Since then, he has gone through many stages of the entrepreneurial journey; hustling as a freelancer, taking a job at a startup, and finally running a successful business of his own. It wasn't all wine and roses, though. Bunty encountered some harrowing mental health struggles along the way, and he joins us on the podcast this week to share his very personal story. This conversation touches on many of our favorite topics as well, including why it's important to put yourself in the room with seasoned entrepreneurs, how getting a job can be an excellent way to uplevel your business chops, and much more.