TMBA Podcast Episodes
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TMBA 227: The Rise Of Productized Services
Damian Thompson from Linchpin is back on the show this week (his first appearance here) talking with me about one of the biggest movements we see in the location independent scene. We talk about what Damian has learned during his first 1,000 days of being a business owner, and how listeners can utilize the lessons he’s learned (and the sales strategies he’s developed) to grow similar service oriented location independent businesses.
TMBA 225: Thoughts on Living and Working in Asia
Happy New Year! Ian is off celebrating the holidays with his family this week, and Kaiser Soze was here hanging out when a discussion came up that we thought would be good for the show. This show is mostly about lifestyle, but in case you’re looking for the good old fashioned business talk, below are some of my favorite podcast episodes on just that topic.
TMBA 223: Things We'd Change if We Started Our Product Business Today
We’ve been looking back a lot to the beginning of The Valet Spot now that we’ve released the info to the public and realized that although we did a lot right, we screwed up a lot too. We figured with some of the big changes and our growth trajectory coming up, it would be a good idea to sit down and discuss what we did wrong, and what we did right so it can help some people in the e-commerce world avoid our biggest mistakes.
TMBA 222: The Full Story Behind Our First Niche
For a variety of reasons, Ian and I have never spoken openly about the first successful B2B business we ever started– TheValetSpot.com. This week we are going to change all that and go into the details of how that business got started, how we won market share, and what we are doing to grow the business in the future. Terry Lin from Build My Online Store was kind enough to interview Ian for his great podcast and I think he did a great job of extracting the real scoop. We asked him if we could share his interview with our listeners, and he was very gracious for letting us share it here. Enjoy!
TMBA 211: How Is It Possible To Raise $100,000 In 4 Days Without Giving Away Equity Or Taking A Loan?
So many people struggle to get a great idea off the ground because they didn’t validate and ask the market to vote with their wallets. Jimmy and Doug from Minaal have completely turned this on its back. Not only were they meticulously calculated about the launch of their killer travel bag designed for location independent entrepreneurs, but they launched a Kickstarter which generated $100,000 in only 4 days! I’ve got them cornered to hear an in depth analysis of how they built this business from nothing and used Kickstarter to become a force in the travel bag industry.
TMBA 206 - Should You Deprioritize Your Income and Go After Your Passion?
This week on the Tropical MBA Podcast we decided to give Mark Manson a call to dig further into his idea that “passion is practical.” Mark walked away from big income to focus on a project he was passionate about, and it ended up working out better in the end. Was it just a fluke? Did he get lucky? Or is there a broader lesson in all of this?
TMBA 201 (TTR37) - How Hyperfocus In Your Marketing Can Lead To Broader Business Opportunities
It’s time for another Tropical Talk Radio podcast, which gets published Friday afternoons (Hong Kong time). Here’s the link to subscribe in iTunes if you haven’t already done so. This week Dan chats with John McIntyre, also affectionately known as The Autoresponder Guy. John was a guest on Episode #17 of TTR talking about how to get killer results with autoresponders, but since that time, he’s making some major moves up the entrepreneurial ladder. He’s here to tell us all about that and more.
TMBA 200 (LBP165) - Building Strong Communities
Ian is back in the US of A hanging out in California, while Dan’s living the high life in Hong Kong. The guys are looking forward to joining up in Vietnam next week, but for now, it’s time for the LBP. This week’s topic came in from Trevor Pirtle from Real Life English who asked Dan and Ian to dig deep and spill the beans on their unorthodox but powerful ways to grow a community. He also wanted to know some of the common misconceptions people have about community building.
TMBA 199 (LBP164) - 5 Concepts (That Don't Cost Much To Implement) That Can Help You Build Wealth
This week, Dan and Ian are talking about some chessmaster stuff. This is an episode all about making strategic moves in your business that you can implement right away and start building wealth. You’ll hear the five concepts that Dan and Ian have used to grow their business and steal their piece of the entrepreneurial pie. If you’re ready to pull away from the amateur hour focus and get your mind right, then listen on.
TMBA 158 (LBP135) - 8 New Year's Resolutions
Dan and Ian are now back in Bali just in time for the New Year’s festivities. Between celebrations, they’ll be putting together their game plan for 2013 and setting some lofty goals for 2013. The turn of the new year marks Dan and Ian’s fifth year in business which sparks a discussion on goal setting and identifying keystone habits. These help form their New Year’s resolutions where they’ll push past just talking revenue and business growth. You’ll hear about Dan’s professional aspirations, Ian’s plan to step up his business relationships and the pairs’ health focus that will inspire you to set some New Year’s resolutions of your own.
TMBA 157 (LBP134) - If It Makes You Money, You Shouldn't Be Doing It (The SOP Episode)
Almost back in Bali! Ian’s heading to join Dan in Bali in just a few days for the end of the year. They’re going to take a look back at their businesses in 2012 and look forward at how to grow their businesses in 2013. They’ve realized that in order to continue to scale, they need to get even more focused on creating documentation and standards of procedure. They took a look at the literature and brought their experience from their e-commerce company together to bring you a step-by-step guide to start creating SOPs that let you save your profits right out of the gate.
TMBA 156 (LBP133) - Deferred Life Plans and the Action Jackson Strategy
Dan and Ian are making plans to rendevous in Bali again. Dan is still there working on his book, while Ian is in Orlando avoiding the M3 service industry guys and spending time with his family. Ian’s recent trip to a race prompted a discussion between the guys about deferred life plans. There’s a built in assumption that retirement is worth 30 years of investment, but is that true?
TMBA 155 (TTR24) - "If You Cannot Exercise This Kind of Control in Adult Life, You'll Be Totally Hosed"
It’s time for another Tropical Talk Radio podcast, which gets published every Friday afternoon (Hong Kong time). Here’s the link to subscribe in Itunes if you haven’t already done so. In this week’s episode Dan hands off the mic to a recording of David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech given in 2005 to Kenyon College in Ohio. It’s inspiring and thought-provoking.
TMBA 154 (LBP132) - "The Imagination Economy" and Other Predictions for 2013
Dan’s set a Sunday deadline for finishing his first book and getting it to a group of Beta readers. Ian and Dan have laid out the upcoming meetups for DCers with definite meetups in April (Europe) and October (Bangkok – #DCBKK) and a potential get together in the Phillipines in March. In today’s episode Dan and Ian make some predictions for 2013 and beyond. Turns out, they think Seth Godin is a pretty smart guy.
TMBA 145 (TTR19) - The 2% Fallacy and 10 Business Red Flags
I’m back in Bali hoping to take advantage of the inspiring scenery and lifestyle to get a ton of work done. I was excited to hop on the mic solo-style this week and address those of you who plan to spend the weekend hustling away. In this week’s show I talk about some digital nomad hot spots as well as 10 business red flags that prevent you and your business from achieving maximum velocity.
TMBA 24 (LBP24) - Why Chris Ducker Wants to Manage 200 Employees from His Laptop, and What it Takes to Make It
Chris Ducker and I got together in Manila last week to talk about a broad range of sweeeet business goings ons, we turned on the tape recorder for some of it. Here I've published the parts pertaining to the lifestyle elements of running his business, We Live 2 Care Group.
TMBA 19 (LBP19) - Season 2 is Here - 8 Business Principles We Wish We Knew Before Starting Our Business
Hiya podcast listeners, thanks for dropping by our site. Ian and I are currently on a goal-setting retreat in Krabi province, Thailand. On Saturday we are going to the famous (infamous?) Koh Phi Phi to have a blast, but for now we are busy setting goals and working on some big projects for 2010.