Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle

Dan goes back to his roots tearing up Vietnam while Ian gets multi-cultural by voice-overing one of the funniest Italian accents in iTunes podcasting history. This week the guys got an email from an eager and ambitious listener, Skyler: I’m extremely passionate about entrepreneurship, however, I’ve found that it can be hard to find the right opportunities. So while I have the passion, I don’t think I have the necessary skills or experience at this point. One of my goals is to work for you guys at some point, so I just wanted to find out if there’s any one skill that I should try to develop over the next year or two? The guys chewed on the question for a couple days. What are they looking for in employees and contractors? What skill is any entrepreneur looking for in employees and contractors? At the end of all that thinking (and a bit of a Vietnamese food coma) they found 5 skillsets that will be vital to anyone looking to hustle their way to a life of freedom and opportunity.

Yeah Buddy! Another week and another chance to talk biznass is always a good combo. Once again Ian and Dan are talking marriage in business, discussing partnerships and what matters and what doesn’t in the listener questions. Thankfully Dan doesn’t nag Ian on his greasy oil change habits. Much. With all the questions coming in and advice going out here at LBP, Ian and Dan realized that may of the questions fall into 4 general categories.

Coming off the euphoric high of 100th Episode bliss, Dan and Ian settled in this week to get back to business making money…for others. That’s right, they’re kicking around some angel investment ideas that would end with a qualified start-up getting some runway to make their lifestyle business dream a reality. Is an angel investment accelerator worth the time, resource, and money effort or should they just stop pansying around and make some real investments? In the Meat & Potatoes, Dan takes to the interview seat to chat with Matt Paulson, who has saved the LBP from a fate worse than death – Site Server Error. When Matt isn’t swooping in like a boss to save Dan and Ian, he’s running a web content company that focuses on various consumer and financial websites and newsletters. Matt has managed to build a devoted following that constantly increases with new readers and customers by NOT focusing on his SERP and SEO strategies. Instead, he thinks Outside the Index and uses unorthodox content oriented strategies to continue to build and grow. Some of his best Outside the Index strategies include:  YouTube and Google image content  Content Writers vs. Scraping Content  Content Generating Sites like Bing and Yahoo Finance  News Search Engines (Not Your Average SERP)

Seems like only yesterday Dan was calling Ian from a noisy cafe in the Philippines to do up another episode of the Lifestyle Business Podcast. Oh wait. That was yesterday! If sports teams have throwback uniforms, consider this special 100th Episode of the Lifestyle Business Podcast a throwback episode, complete with some of our favorite music, quotes, and outtakes from the past 1000 Days of broadcasting this podcast. In this episode, Dan and Ian get a little nostalgic. Remembering the times they’ve had here at LBP, remembering the times that they were away. Most importantly they are digging deep to share the things that worked for them, the things they’ve screwed up, and their hopes for the future of the biznass and LBP. So what are the Bunches of Stuff Dan & Ian Have Screwed Up In The Past 1000 Days? In no particular order…  Perspective on What It Really Takes To Get Momentum  One Thing: Shit Takes Forever  Location is EVERYTHING and Location is Nothing (Same Goes For Money)  You Don’t Need A VA (Gasp?! From the Original Outsourcing To The Philippines Guy?!)  They Would Have Paid Themselves More  Invest In A Good Tax and Money Guy Not to get too sentimental…but the LBP wouldn’t be hitting 100 Episodes without the balla support of our listeners. You guys make it fun to show up every week and talk freedom and opportunity for 20-30 minutes. Thanks for being so awesome! What are the plans for the upcoming 1000 Days/100 Episodes?  Found a Disruptive Business  Help 1000 Entrepreneurs Make A Switch To Running Their Own Business  Help our Dynamite Circle Members Create an Extra $10K in Annual Income  LEARN. IMPROVE. PLATFORM.

This week I decided to get back to my roots, fire up my dorky headset, and do another Tropical Talk Radio (iTunes link). Today we ask the question: do you think it’s likely that you’ll have $1,000,000 in your personal bank account in 5 years? You might be surprised by the way some young entrepreneurs answer the question. I was first introduced to my guests Tim and Nick by my friend Sean Ogle, and since that time I’ve enjoyed following what they are up to in China (I’m also proud to call them DCers!). These guys talk about doing business in China, and accelerating your entrepreneurial career by making the jump to Asia. I like the metaphor Tim and Nick use: “lose the [corporate] ladder, take the elevator.” One of the most useful pieces of small business advice I’ve ever heard is: “9 out of 10 small businesses track with market.” I believe the same principle can apply to your life and career. A rising tide lifts all boats

Less than 72 hours after we launched The Tropical MBA program exclusively to members of Dynamite Circle and then our pre-sale listeners, we have already SOLD OUT these first two sessions. Thanks so much – blown away, humbled, and excited as hell barely begin to scrape the surface of how we feel about that! This week Dan & Ian get a little Starsky & Hutch, bringing 70’s yacht rock back in style with Bad Company’s “Shooting Star” as they look at what makes a person or business so successful you watch them burst across the sky like a shooting star, lighting up the night.

All this thinking has led to a higher-than-average consumption of wine and Bintang, a lot of power naps, Ian taking up hot yoga, and some epic brainstorming. Why are some ridiculous people successful? Why do otherwise brilliant ideas fail? Can you really source an entire business set-up buying gigs on Fiverr? The key, as outlined by Steven Pressfield in The Art of War, is resistance. Resistance is rarely obvious in it’s inception and even harder to identify once you are fully entrenched. That’s why it’s so important to keep an eye out for these 8 Lesser Recognized Forms Of The Resistance: Anything that prevents you from having the best product Being smart Rationalizing your job Doing SEO, tech, specialization that you aren’t specialized in Having people sign NDA’s Going to conferences to learn critical information Getting your friends to partner up Hiring interns, VA’s, and other employees without knowing what’s what?

Who knew portable bars could be such a successful pursuit? Dan and Ian did, of course. And that’s where their time has been lately. Freestyling their content a bit this week, they take to their inboxes to answer some listener questions and discuss business strategy. Dishing out the free content for all the hustlers out there, ’cause it ain’t where you’ve been but where you’re about to go. Like a boss.

Things are exciting in the TMBA / LBP world as Ian and Dan work to put together a unique experience for 10 aspiring entrepreneurs. Start-Up August isn’t just some make money quick conference – if they wanted to do that there’d be a lot more hugging and Dan would bring his guitar to strum out some Kum-Ba-Yah ditties. Instead, this will be an intense three month mastermind process culminating in a two-week all expense paid experience at a resort in the Philippines. You know, that place that Dan and Ian have been gallivanting around for the past month playing in mud-carts and sipping wine on the deck overlooking the ocean. (They’re so classy…) Start-Up August will hit on 4 Key Points To Getting Your Biz Off The Ground:  Don’t Unnecessarily Spend Money (Philippines is one of the top baselining spots in the world)  Have an Amazing Support Network. (DC, in-person, 10 start-ups take on the world)  Clear Action Plan (Something you can excel at– we can help you, hold your feet to the fire)  Work Your Ass Off (The 2-week experience offers a controlled environment, teamwork, healthy food, exercise, etc) Still in the planning stages, the guys are looking for input and feedback on the program.

With Ian back stateside and Dan back in Bali, the guys have said goodbye (for now) to their time in the Philippines and are back to biznass. This week, they are chatting about the re-launch of their lifestyle business site, Tropical Work Force. During their time chatting up colleagues and friends in the Philippines, they learned that many entrepreneurs were interested in hiring “interns” of their own to grow their businesses and share their knowledge with. Having been through this process ten times now, Dan & Ian have quite a bit of experience helping people become location independent while working to grow their companies. Some of the experience is great and some…well…let’s just say they learned a lot. Overall, they came up with 5 Tips To A Successful Internship Paid Vs. Unpaid – Put your money where your intern is Get a commitment – Make the gig full-time Give them space – Create opportunities for them to network and meet your peers (Apartment, Join you in your house, Dynamite Circle forums) Ride ’em hard – These folks aren’t your average employee, challenge them and believe you have something to offer Touch base – No one likes to be micromanaged, but you need to have open communication with your interns