Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle

This week, we are once again diving into the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Gerbz is a regular contributor to this podcast and our go-to guy for all things crypto. He is the founder of BitLift.com, and the host of the brand new BitLift podcast, which aims to guide people down the crypto rabbit hole. Gerbz joins us this week to discuss the world of "Decentralized Finance", or "DeFi", where smart contracts and blockchain technology are being used to replace traditional financial institutions. He'll also be answering 5 pressing questions that we have about the state of crypto in 2021. Disclaimer: These are just our opinions, and are presented for informational purposes only. They are not intended to be considered as financial advice.

The term "Digital Nomad" has been beaten to death over the years, but it still means a lot to those of us who have identified with that label. James Clark is certainly one of those people. He's been a full-time nomad since the early 2000s, and we've shared many great memories with him around the world. James is also the author of a brilliant blog called Nomad Notes, where he recently published an article that captured our attention. The post was titled Digital Nomadism History, and in it he chronicles the start of the digital nomad movement through today, touching on all of the most important milestones. James joins us on today's podcast to talk about the history of digital nomadism, what inspired him to write that blog post, and a whole lot more.

Longtime listeners know that Dan and Ian have been business partners for many years, and sometimes it's hard for us to imagine what it would be like to run a business on our own. So many entrepreneurs do choose this path, though, and the quest of a "Solopreneur" can be a long and arduous one. Darren Joe is the director of TouchMBA, a service that matches prospective students with MBA programs. He is also the author of a new book called "The Fail-Safe Solopreneur", where he offers some insights and practical exercises to help navigate the journey of the solopreneur. Darren joins us on today's podcast to talk about his own journey as a solopreneur, what inspired him to write this book, why he has chosen to make Ho Chi Minh his home, and much more.

We aren't usually the type for navel-gazing, but this summer marks an important milestone for us. 10 years ago, our desire to "find our tribe" led us to form the Dynamite Circle, a private membership community of location-independent entrepreneurs. Since then, there have been dozens of DC events all over the globe, and it has truly become a life-changing adventure for so many of the people involved in the community over the last decade. We've invited our good friend Jeff Pecaro on to the podcast this week to look back on the ups and downs of the last ten years of the Dynamite Circle. We are also going to pull back the curtain a bit and discuss the behind-the-scenes details of what it's really like to run a private community and the unique challenges that these types of businesses present.

This week's episode was inspired by a question from a listener. Katie recently graduated with her master's degree, and while she appreciated the insight that we've shared in the past about how to get a remote job, she wanted to know more about what it takes to succeed at a remote position once you get it. This got our wheels spinning, and we put together a list of five important factors that can help employees become "A Players" in their remote positions. This conversation is of keen interest to remote employees and employers alike. You'll hear about the difference between good employees and great ones, why "B players" have been struggling with remote positions, and a whole lot more. We'll also be sharing some news about our first event in nearly two years.

Nick Huber has been on a wild ride since we last spoke to him in 2019. Nick is the host of a podcast called The Sweaty Startup, and at the time he was running a business called Storage Squad, a storage company that helped students store their belongings at universities all across America. Covid threw that business for a loop, but Nick was able to make some fast decisions that allowed him to sell that company and pivot into a new endeavor, a multi-million dollar real estate private equity company called Bolt Storage. Nick joins us on this week's podcast to share what happened when the coronavirus pandemic shut down most of his business, why he has decided to pivot into the real estate business, how he utilizes Twitter to help find investors, and a whole lot more.

Summer is here, and it's starting to feel like things are returning to "normal." For many of us in the community, that means that we're finally going to have the opportunity to pick up our backpacks and return to nomadic life. Jesse Schoberg is the co-founder and CEO of DropInBlog.com, a Software as a Service platform that helps users add blogs to their websites. Jesse has been a full-time nomad for over 7 years, and he joins us on this week's podcast to discuss how he was able to transition from running an agency to creating a product, and why he finds the nomadic life so appealing. If you're ready to get back on the road, or perhaps you've decided that it's finally time to double down on entrepreneurship and go remote, this is the episode for you.

A few weeks ago we said something on this podcast in jest, but one of our more attentive listeners latched onto it. "I find myself some days waking up and saying 'are we going to make it?'" Our good friend John Ainsworth heard this and he reached out to us with a little bit of concern, hoping to find out more. What exactly does it mean when we ask that question, "are we going to make it?" We'll be seeking the answer to that on today's podcast, as well as sharing five principles that we have been employing recently in our quest to grow an 8-figure business. Stick around to the end of the episode to hear a tribute to one of our dearest friends.

We've learned over the years that being a part of a community of like-minded people is one of the most valuable experiences that you can have as an entrepreneur. This was our core motivation for forming The Dynamite Circle, our own online community of location-independent entrepreneurs, back in 2011. We originally built that community on a platform called Ning, largely because it was the best option on the market at the time, and it served us well for many years. Gina Bianchini is the former CEO of Ning. She recently decided to leave that company to create Mighty Networks, a sophisticated platform aimed at helping creators build their own online communities. We've invited Gina on to the podcast today to talk about the challenges of building and running online communities in 2021, how communities on the internet have evolved over the past decade, how to grow an 8-figure remote business, and more.

This week's episode is full of so many recurring themes that we've seen over the years on this podcast, from the unique struggles that SaaS businesses face, to the decision between bootstrapping and funding, and much more. Derrick Reimer has had a long and storied career as a software entrepreneur, but he is perhaps best known as the technical co-founder of Drip, which he built alongside our good friend and former guest Rob Walling. Since exiting Drip three years ago, Derrick jumped headfirst into his next project: a team-chat software named Level, which he ultimately chose to walk away from in 2019. Today, Derrick joins us to talk about why he made the decision to shut down the product that he has spent a year building, as well as the details of his newest project, a sophisticated scheduling tool named SavvyCal.