Dan Andrews (https://twitter.com/TropicalMBA) talks to Authority Hacker co-founder Mark Webster (https://twitter.com/markwebster1) about successfully transitioning from an agency model to a multimillion-dollar course business. They talk about navigating 50/50 partnerships, why starting a course business isn’t for everyone, and what you can build with a laptop, a dream, and cheap accommodation. Dan & Ian’s Stuff: The Newsletter “The DC” DC Black Global events Hire remote talent Find a remote job Listen on YouTube Follow on Instagram @TropicalMBA @AnythingIan Show Notes: (00:00:00) Intro (00:11:01) The audience is the hard part (00:18:47) The start of authority sites (00:28:52) Becoming business partners (00:35:38) Outgrowing your agency (00:44:59) Getting to 7-figures quickly (00:50:40) 50/50 partnership pros & cons (00:56:48) You made it, now what? Links: ● Authority Hacker: https://www.authorityhacker.com/ ● The Ultimate Product Launch Plan: https://videofruit.com/blog/product-launch/ ● American Icon: https://www.amazon.com/American-Icon-Mulally-Fight-Company/dp/0307886069 Past guests on TMBA include Cal Newport, David Heinemeier Hannson, Seth Godin, Ricardo Semler, Noah Kagan, Rob Walling, Jay Clouse, Einar Vollset, Sam Dogan, Gino Wickam, James Clear, Jodie Cook, Mark Webster, Steph Smith, Taylor Pearson, Tommy Griffith, Justin Tan, Matt Gartland, Travis Jamison, Ayman Al-Abdullah, Tynan Additional episodes you might enjoy: TMBA 706: 5 Things Founders Often Misunderstand about Exiting Their Business TMBA 702: Millions for Podcasts and Jay Clouse on Memberships TMBA 695: The Money Theory of Location And Why Employee Scorecards Are So Helpful TMBA 678: Evolving An Agency, With SaaS Mistakes Along The Way

Two months ago, Dan & Ian were limited by their lack of visibility into their business finances. They fired their bookkeepers, hired a financial professional, and with their financial house in order, they’re able to agree on top-level strategies and move with speed. Plus, friend of the pod and financial expert Sam Hill (ecomcfo.co), shares what 7-figure agency owners should be paying for financial services and expertise. “It's your responsibility as the owner, period. It's the management's responsibility for the numbers. And if you're not getting what you want from the person that you've hired, whether it's in-house or outsourced, it's your responsibility to fix it.”

Dan and Ian have had hundreds of conversations with founders in 2023 so far. In today’s episode, they share two major challenges that are coming up for 6 and 7+ figure founders. They’re calling these challenges the Wheel of Despair and the Paradox of Growth. Contrary to what the popular business literature says about overcoming these challenges, Dan and Ian offer some alternative frameworks for how you as the founder can address them. “The secret is: that is not the question you need to answer. It is: where's the next million in revenue coming from? That is the question that needs to be answered. And I think that's where the bravery, the excitement, and the fear come in. You don't always know, and you’ve got to figure it out. That's your job as a founder.”

This week’s guest is a TMBA all-timer. Taylor Pearson is an entrepreneur, writer, and co-founder of Mutify Funds. He joins Dan to catch up on what he’s been up to lately, and shares five frameworks he’s adapting in his business after “messing up” over the last two years. “...like many people, I've sat down and read the business book and thought about the principles of the business and what are important and written them down and had this very nice, you know, Google Doc, with examples of these principles being followed and these principles not being followed. And I have put that Google doc into my nicely organized standard operating folder, and then that Google doc has sat there for months or years without seeing the light of day.”

Today’s guest is one of Dan’s favorite people to talk business with. Justin Tan grew his productized video-editing agency to 7 figures in 2 years and “retired” in 4. Now he helps burnt-out mid-6-figure agency owners become 7-figure passive owners without the 60-hour workweek grind. Join Dan and Justin as they geek out on the pumpkin plan, the trouble with blindspots, and some common mistakes business owners make. Justin just so happened to give Dan and Ian some pro bono consulting last summer in Barcelona, so they’ll chat about how that advice is panning out… Plus, we’re hiring an Events Manager to help us take our global community events to the next level. Head to dynamitejobs.com to apply or refer a friend. “You keep on promoting people you are familiar with because you like that dynamic. You are familiar with that dynamic. I am their boss, I tell you what to do. But at some point, you need to make that mentality switch. And this goes back to the operator owner where I tell them what to do. Instead, it needs to be they tell me what to do or what is needed, and I am the one who enables them to do that.”

In today’s episode, Dan talks with agency owner John Ainsworth about how implementing seemingly small, simple changes allowed him to take most of last year off, while his business still grew 30%. They discuss the modern business philosophies of Traction and Scaling Up and how sometimes those books leave you feeling overwhelmed. Dan’s perspective is that sometimes the biggest ROI comes from the changes that are deceptively simple, maybe even boringly simple. “People think of traction as a mechanical system that all works together and fits together. So, when you get to the end of the book, you think three things. Number one, I have to do it. Number two, I am definitely a visionary, not an integrator. And number three, I'm guilty relative to the percentage of all this that I've implemented. And so my philosophy is really just take one thing and do it, and your business will be better in the morning.”

Some bootstrapped entrepreneurs are fortunate enough to exit their businesses for life-changing money, but that’s not always the case. Today Dan talks to Einar Vollset, about the key mistakes founders often make when exiting their business. Einar is the Founder and Managing Partner of Discretion Capital, a Partner at TinySeed, and YCombinator alumni. In his experience, he says that many bootstrapped and startup founders alike often have blindspots that prevent them from having the best exit possible. “In some cases, bootstrappers end up with basically a stagnating business and one of the main mistakes you can do in terms of m&a is to wait and just let your business stagnate because it really hurts the value of the asset that you have.” Stick around til the end when Einar shares the 5 things founders often get wrong when exiting their business.

Today Dan and Ian analyze different frameworks for developing a good business idea, and reflect on how they didn’t always follow their own advice. They cover 6 idea frameworks: ‘Find a Channel, Not an Idea’, ‘The Classic Entrepreneur’s Venn Diagram’, ‘The Slippery Slope Arbitrage’, “Make it Incredibly Difficult and Pointlessly Complicated’ and ‘Polarize Your Range’. “You only need to answer one question, which is not do I hustle? Or do I chill? Or do I have the spirit or am I creative enough? It is simply, can I reliably and repeatedly get customers?” Stick around until the end of the show for a walk with Dan and Ian down the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, aka their domain registrar account.

In what could be a polarizing conversation for the pod, Dan and Ian discuss one of the most popular threads in the TMBA community this year: Is living in America worth it? They address the pros and cons of life in the US vs abroad and challenge the bigger questions about the values that pull some of us back to our home country, and the luxuries that make the digital nomad life so appealing. We’d love to hear you stand, and what other topics you want to hear on the pod (tweet us @TropicalMBA). We’ll be back next week with our regularly scheduled business programming (we promise).

Dan and Ian deep dive into the high-conflict personalities that could derail your business and how the role of finance changes as you grow out of one phase of your business and into the next. Lastly, in a throwback to the early days, Dan shares his latest “travel tips” as he prepares for summer in Europe. “...a lot of what having a good life is, from my perspective, is not wasting your time, not getting caught up in problems, and avoiding people who could derail your ambitions. Sometimes it's a little bit harder than advertised, because it can be subtle. So having a framework for anticipating it and avoiding it in advance before you get into any kind of problems, I think is extremely powerful.”