Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle

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 and manage her team. This week, we're diving deeper into the topic by speaking with an entrepreneur who has developed their own customized version of the very same system with impressive results. Neel Parekh is the founder of MaidThis, a business that offers cleaning services for residential homes and AirBNB rentals. Neel joins us today to discuss why he chose to use the EOS system in MaidThis, the steps he has taken to implement it, and how smaller businesses can utilize a "Lite" version of EOS to help manage their teams.

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 week, we're going to speak to an entrepreneur who used the landscape of Covid as an opportunity to provide an entirely different educational experience for her children. Carrie McKeegan is the CEO and co-founder of Greenback Expat Tax Services, which helps Americans abroad prepare and file their taxes. She and her husband Dave have been living outside of the United States for many years, raising their children as "Third Culture Kids", a subject that has become increasingly popular in our online community. Carrie joins us this week to talk about what it's like educating children abroad, why she decided it was time to "reinvent education" for her kids, and how the book "Traction" by Gino Wickman has shaped the way that she manages her team.

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 official event since 2019, is just a few short weeks away, and we couldn't be more excited to see so many listeners of this podcast in Mexico City this October. In-person events are so important to those of us in the entrepreneurial community. From the relationships that we develop to the things that we learn together, there are so many reasons why entrepreneurs can benefit from being together in the same place. We've invited our longtime friend Jeff Pecaro back onto the show this week, to reflect on what the past few years have been like without DC events, how things have changed since the last time we've all been together, and why we've chosen Mexico City for our newest event.

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. Benny Lewis is the founder of Fluent in 3 months, and he recently opened up about his own struggles at our unofficial DCx event in London a few weeks ago. While his business was "successful" by many traditional metrics, his personal life was far from it. He soon found himself under a mountain of credit card debt, with his marriage to his partner of five years ending in divorce. Benny joins us on this week's podcast to share the details of his personal journey. You'll hear about his battle with clinical depression, the steps he took to get back on his feet, and how his business was able to survive through such a tumultuous period in his life.

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 throughout the entire conversation with today's guest, and by the time it had ended, it felt like we had taken part in an incredible workshop. John Ainsworth is the founder of Data Driven Marketing, and he has recently started a group that coaches course creators who are looking to increase the revenue of their business. John joins us on today's podcast to share the specific steps that he has been using with his own clients that have helped them see immediate results in their sales funnel.

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 Lifestyle?" and many of the points we touched on in that article are still being discussed by people in our community today. One of those people is Jesse Schoberg. Jesse is the co-founder and CEO of DropInBlog.com, and he is all too familiar with the challenges of bootstrapping his way up the "Lifestyle Ladder". Jesse joins us this week to share his thoughts on location arbitrage, financial freedom, and what he believes the "Lifestyle Ladder" of the permanent traveler looks like in 2021.

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 thread titled "Is Digital Nomadism Possible to Combine With Having a Family?" While there were many insightful responses in that thread, one member, in particular, caught our attention. Steven Ladek is the Principal of E-Learning Advocacy for a company called Open LMS. He's also a longtime entrepreneur and has lived outside of the United States for 16 years. Together with his wife Dana, they have raised three children in Hungary, Costa Rica, Thailand, and Mexico. Steven joins us this week to talk about what it's really like to balance parenting with nomadism, and the unique challenges that expat families face around the globe.

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 episode, as we are "shooting from the hip" on a variety of items that have come across our desk in the past few months. We'll be discussing how to structure your teams (specifically in an agency), tips for staying focused on what's important in your business, and how to avoid the dreaded "D-word" in your business: drama.

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 Mythia, a financial startup that has partnered with banks to create a debit card aimed exclusively at gamers. He has experienced just about every entrepreneurial path, from running a "4-Hour Workweek" business built on passive income, to seeking out more ambitious projects in the San Francisco startup community, and eventually raising roughly 2.2 million dollars in venture capital funding. Derek joins us this week to take us through the steps of his incredible journey, and to share some of the fundamental differences between bootstrapping and running a venture capital-backed business.

Today's episode is particularly insightful for entrepreneurs who are looking to improve their social media or content marketing game, and for those of us who are interested in the property investment space. Moses Kagan is the co-founder of Adaptive Realty, a boutique real estate private equity firm based in Los Angeles, which has about $200 Million in assets under management. He is also an extremely savvy Twitter user and has successfully leveraged that platform to build meaningful relationships, many of which have led to massive investment deals. Moses joins us this week to talk about his strategies for social media and content marketing, the principles he has used to drive the success of his real estate business, and so much more.