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Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle

Latest episodes

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Nov 26, 2020 • 1h 7min

TMBA573: The Art of Personal Blogging

This week's episode is about something that is incredibly near and dear to our hearts: personal blogging and what it means to write on the internet. To help us tell this story, we've invited two of our favorite writers who both have a long and rich experience in the blogging space. Taylor Pearson has been a frequent guest and contributor on this podcast. He is the author of The End of Jobs, and he runs an excellent blog over at TaylorPearson.me that has been required reading for us for quite some time. Amanda Cook is an author, a podcaster, herbalist, and the founder of a business called Wellpreneur. Over the years, she has published online about a wide variety of projects, but the one consistent thing is that she's always had an excellent blog, which you can find at AmandaCook.me. Join us for this round table discussion about the past and future of blogging on the internet, tips for those starting out with a personal blog, some of our favorite blogs to read today, and so much more.
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Nov 19, 2020 • 53min

TMBA572: 4 Things We've Learned From Building a New Software Platform

We've been receiving a ton of requests recently from listeners who want to hear an "old school" episode, so this week Dan and Ian are jumping on the horn to talk about the progress that they've made with their remote jobs business Dynamite Jobs. Since the start of the summer, we've been building a new software platform designed to make the hiring process a whole lot easier for entrepreneurs. Just a few weeks ago, we finally started onboarding users into the platform. So far the results have been remarkable, but the challenges immense. In today's episode, we're sharing four specific things that we've learned from creating a brand new software product. You'll hear updates about some key figures in our business, how running a SaaS business has differed from a lot of our other ventures, and a whole lot more.
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Nov 12, 2020 • 54min

TMBA571: There is Only One Kevin Kelly

For our money, there is nobody quite like Kevin Kelly. Not only is he one of the co-founders of Wired Magazine, but he is also the author of some of our favorite pieces of writing about technology, including What Technology Wants, New Rules for the New Economy, and the brilliant essay 1,000 True Fans, which has been discussed countless times on this show over the years. This week, Kevin is joining us for a conversation about technology and how it informs our lives and businesses. On this podcast, Kevin shares his thoughts about why we have to stretch our imaginations more, what we can learn about technology from the Amish, why you should focus on "Being the only", and so much more.
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Nov 5, 2020 • 53min

TMBA570: Productizing Your Way to Freedom

Today's podcast is all about one listener of this show who took the concept of productizing and applied it incredibly well at a very high velocity. More than that, it's a story about endurance, applying systems intelligently, and the power of community. Ian Horley left a long stint at a successful corporate job in 2014 to create his own web agency, but he ultimately found himself incredibly stressed and unhappy. Today, Ian is the founder of HubSnacks, a productized service which offers unlimited tasks on the HubSpot platform for a fixed monthly fee. In this week's episode, Ian joins us to recall his tale of leaving the corporate world, why he struggled with the day-to-day of running an agency, and how productizing has finally allowed him the freedom to create a business on his own terms.
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Oct 29, 2020 • 48min

TMBA569: An Ode to DCBKK

Longtime listeners know that this is typically the time of year that we host DC BKK, our annual Dynamite Circle event in Bangkok. Each year, hundreds of entrepreneurs flock to the capital city of Thailand for the chance to meet and share ideas with like-minded people from across the globe. This has always been sort of a magical time for so many of us in the community, and to say that we are disappointed that we can't take part in it this year would be a huge understatement. It has become something of a tradition that our good friend Jeff Pecaro sits down with us after the event to crack open a beer and talk shop. Jeff is an incredibly talented copywriter and the founder of MostlyStories.com. He is also the man behind the content at most of our in-person events. This year, Jeff is joining us virtually on the podcast to commiserate and share some of our favorite memories, thoughts, and insights into the history of DCBKK.
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Oct 22, 2020 • 1h 10min

TMBA568: ‘I’m Fiscally Bitcoin and Socially Ethereum’

Greg Gerber, a cryptocurrency expert known for making complex topics accessible, joins the discussion on the current state of crypto. He delves into the philosophical distinctions between Bitcoin and Ethereum, shedding light on their roles in transactions and investments. The conversation highlights the burgeoning crypto lending market and potential passive income opportunities. Greg also shares insights on his new venture, BitLift, aimed at helping entrepreneurs navigate the evolving landscape of digital currencies.
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Oct 15, 2020 • 1h 1min

TMBA567: A Shopify Software Business Success Story

We've been devoting a lot of time to talking about software businesses in recent weeks. One of the reasons we are so fascinated by them is that despite how difficult it can be to start one, these types of businesses can have tremendous upside. Jordan Gal is the founder of CartHook, a software company that helps Shopify merchants present offers to shoppers at checkout. Jordan first reached out to us back in 2015 with an investment opportunity (and we turned him down!). It really shouldn't come as a surprise then that Carthook has grown exponentially in the years since, with its user base having made more than a billion dollars worth of sales. Jordan joins us on today's podcast to share the story of CartHook.
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Oct 8, 2020 • 42min

TMBA566: Why Do SaaS Businesses Fail?

Today's episode is all about software startups, and there are very few people more capable or qualified to talk about them than today's guest. Simon Payne first joined us on this podcast back in 2016 to talk about his role as the technical co-founder of Leadpages. Since leaving Leadpages in 2016, Simon has gone on to found multiple software companies, including a video tool called Convert Player, and a ticketing tool that we regularly use in our own business called EventsFrame. But, as you will hear on today's podcast, the results of these endeavors have ultimately been a mixed bag.  Simon joins us this week to share the details of his entrepreneurial journey over the last few years, to discuss how the relationships between developers and marketers can make or break a software business, and to explain why he's recently decided to help us build our own software platform at Dynamite Jobs.
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Oct 1, 2020 • 58min

TMBA565: The Origins of the 1,000 Day Principle

Today's episode features a longtime friend and mentor who shared an idea with us many years ago that changed the way that we thought about entrepreneurship. David McKeegan and his wife Carrie are the founders of Greenback Expat Tax Services. David first joined us on the podcast back in 2013, and he is singlehandedly responsible for introducing us to one of our all-time favorite concepts, The 1,000 Day Principle. This idea that it takes 1,000 days of full-time effort to replace the income from your day job has since been dissected on this podcast countless times over the years. David joins us this week to fill us in on the many developments in his business, to share his personal tale of an entrepreneurial identity crisis, and to discuss the lasting legacy of The 1,000 Day Principle.
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Sep 24, 2020 • 1h 2min

TMBA564: The Knowledge Gap vs The Efficiency Gap Revisited (Again)

We talk quite a bit on this podcast about services businesses and the sorts of problems that they seek to solve for their customers.  You may recall that Eagan Heath joined us to share his thoughts about this back in 2018 on an episode titled "The Knowledge Gap vs. The Efficiency Gap Revisited". In that episode, we spoke about whether it is better to serve your customers by filling a "knowledge gap" and teaching them why they need your services or to fill an "efficiency gap" by helping them optimize something that they are already doing. Since then, Eagan and his team have decided to move on from filling "knowledge gaps" for local businesses in Wisconsin and to focus on servicing "efficiency gaps" by providing digital marketing services to eCommerce businesses with his new company Caravan Digital. Eagan joins us this week to share the reasons he's chosen to change his approach to this philosophy and why he feels like the "efficiency gap" strategy has ultimately prevailed.

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