Tropical MBA: Entrepreneurship & Founder Lifestyle
With 10M+ downloads and thousands of listener meetups worldwide, the TMBA Podcast is the hub for 7 & 8-figure founders who’ve built life-changing businesses while attaining personal freedom. New episodes every Thursday morning.
Episodes
July 10, 2025 • 28 mins
We’re halfway through 2025! This episode is a raw look at what’s working, what’s not, and the experiments we’re doubling down on.
From running premium events at zero profit to building lean teams with talent from Latin America, we share the trade-offs and results behind every decision. Dan and Ian open the books on DC BLACK and DC Accelerator, plus they uncover how Remote First Recruiting quietly had one of its best quarters yet.
L...
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July 3, 2025 • 39 mins
What happens when you’ve optimized everything… and growth still stalls? In this episode, Dan and Ian break down a powerful distinction most founders miss: the difference between optimization (making your business run smoother) and growth (finding and testing new paths to scale). They unpack insights from Growth Levers by Matt Lerner, a framework that helped PayPal and other startups unlock massive growth and why it still applies to...
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June 26, 2025 • 54 mins
What marketing strategies are actually working in 2025? Karla Singson shares standout tactics from a DC Mexico meetup she hosted, where 6- and 7-figure founders revealed how they’re landing clients organically through Facebook groups, trade show podcast hacks, and thoughtful LinkedIn comments (no ad spend required).
We also dive into Karla’s own playbook: how she’s built multiple businesses around authenticity, reputation, and smar...
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June 19, 2025 • 44 mins
From hating life on a Sydney construction site to building a $57K/month agency from Bali, Tom Richards—founder of PlumbElec Marketing—has lived the remote founder arc. In this episode, he shares how niching into plumbing and electrical businesses helped him scale fast, why Google Maps still dominates local SEO, and how he balances agency life with lifestyle design.
You’ll hear Tom’s take on ChatGPT use cases, the best tools for fou...
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June 12, 2025 • 49 mins
Thinking of selling your business one day? Or never planning to? Either way, this conversation could change how you build.
Rob Walling has seen it all. He’s exited his own SaaS company and helped thousands of founders grow and sell through TinySeed, MicroConf, and his podcast “Startups for the Rest of Us.”
In this episode, he sits down with Dan to talk about what founders get wrong about selling, why most exits are emotionally bru...
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June 5, 2025 • 48 mins
Is the “lifestyle business” still alive in 2025?
Dan chats with longtime friend Jeff Pecaro about the evolution of internet business, what today’s solopreneurs get right (and wrong), and how constraints can lead to clarity.
They dive into pricing mistakes, the pressure to grow beyond your goals, and how to use tools like AI to think—not just automate. It’s a thoughtful, behind-the-scenes look at the business models most of us are a...
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May 29, 2025 • 49 mins
Many founders hit $3M in revenue and stall out. In this episode, Dan and Greg Crabtree break down why—and how to fix it. They discuss “profit truth”, how to spot financial red flags, and what metrics to track to scale beyond the messy middle.
Plus: we’re looking for listener stories. Have you implemented a system or framework that changed your business? Tell us about it. Your story could help 1,000s of entrepreneurs.
Links from the...
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May 22, 2025 • 32 mins
What 160 founders taught us at DC Mexico—why deep customer engagement beats ads, how group workshops are replacing sales calls, what lifestyle entrepreneurs can learn from the FIRE movement, and how financial clarity and community still drive the biggest results.
CHAPTERS
(00:00:34) DC Mexico Recap
(00:02:42) Why We Do This (Essay by Jeff Pecaro)
(00:06:23) Deep Giveaways That Convert
(00:12:31) High Ticket Offers
(00:15:30) Lifest...
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May 15, 2025 • 33 mins
Dan shares how advanced digital nomads use geography as a lever for business growth—and why most people get it wrong. If you’re going to travel, do it with intention. This episode breaks down how.
CHAPTERS
(00:02:00) The Embargo on “Digital Nomad”
(00:02:35) Why Most Nomads Miss the Point
(00:05:38) 4 Ways to Travel Smart and Build Faster
(00:06:13) Leverage Financial Arbitrage
(00:09:16) Curate Better Relationships
(00:16:20) Pic...
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May 8, 2025 • 31 mins
Dan shares why most bootstrapped business partnerships go sideways—and what to do if yours already has.
Resources Mentioned:
● When Partners Fall Out (HBR article) (https://hbr.org/1986/11/when-partners-fall-out)
● Tropical MBA financial dashboards (https://tropicalmba.com/resources)
CHAPTERS
(00:00:13) Why This Episode Exists
(00:01:27) The Bootstrapper’s Dilemma
(00:03:07) The Gridlock Problem
(00:04:56) When Life Goals Shift
(00...
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May 1, 2025 • 17 mins
This week, Dan goes back to the basics—because that’s where the breakthroughs often live. This might be the single most important episode you listen to, especially if you feel like you’ve hit a plateau.
He lays out the fundamentals of crafting a compelling offer, why most founders avoid doing it, and how your aversion to rejection might be holding you back from growth.
Resources Mentioned:
Download Dan's Offer Worksheet (https://...
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April 24, 2025 • 35 mins
Dan shares a relationship-first strategy for landing bigger deals—no funnels, no ads, just a focused system that’s often more affordable and effective than a social media strategy. He’s joined by agency owner James Feng, who’s using this approach to grow from $300K to $1M.
(Dan's template) The Rolodex Method + Marketing Tracker (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jRV_ncgCWAMRB7tZZtnO7x0Tn5sE46-tYkwN6paVG3A/edit?usp=sharing)
CHAPTE...
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April 17, 2025 • 17 mins
What if your struggle to follow through isn’t a discipline problem — but a signal? This week, Dan unpacks why many entrepreneurs bounce between ideas early on, and how that phase might be necessary, not broken. He shares a simple framework for telling the difference between just another project… and a business worth going all-in on.
CHAPTERS
(00:00:13) Intro + Listener Question
(00:02:03) Why $150/Month Is a Great Start
(00:02:58) ...
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April 10, 2025 • 41 mins
Some of the “smart moves” founders make might be signs of hidden resistance. This week, Dan and Ian break down 10 behaviors that can quietly kill momentum, from expanding marketing channels too early to pausing sales during busy stretches. They also dive into why scaling too soon backfires, the hidden risks of declining assets, and what happens when you delay building management layers.
CHAPTERS
(00:00:13) Introduction
(00:01:09) U...
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April 3, 2025 • 26 mins
Dan shares strategies for creating value as an entrepreneur - from maximizing personal productivity to defending your creative space so you can build something meaningful. He breaks down the common roadblocks entrepreneurs face at the $300K revenue mark and shares practical wisdom for navigating difficult personalities in business and in life.
Book recos form the episode:
“Getting Things Done” (https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Thin...
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March 27, 2025 • 43 mins
Dan and Ian break down what makes a great lifestyle business in 2025—one that delivers both strong cash flow and location freedom. They dive into the nuanced tension between building a lifestyle-friendly business and “going big,” and share five essential design principles for creating a business that supports the life you want.
CHAPTERS
(00:00:14) Intro
(00:04:25) Lifestyle Business vs “Going Big”
(00:10:25) Cash Flow Logic that So...
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March 20, 2025 • 29 mins
What if 90 days from now, your business was sharper, more focused, and positioned for real
growth? In this episode, Dan walks you through a simple but powerful 10-question framework
designed to help you identify your biggest challenge, clarify your team’s focus, and uncover new
opportunities to stand out in your market.
This is the same exercise that 7- and 8-figure founders in DC BLACK worked through on their
recent trip to Phuket...
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March 13, 2025 • 32 mins
Dan and Ian share key insights from their Thailand mastermind event, exploring how successful entrepreneurs balance curiosity, diverse business models, and personal life.
They talk about navigating market uncertainties, implementing AI workflows to enhance business operations, and the irreplaceable value of in-person networking events. And unlike magic mushrooms, the benefits of attending an event like this will ideally last a lif...
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March 6, 2025 • 26 mins
Dan unpacks what business owners can adapt from DOGE’s new strategy, delivers a practical cure for practitioner syndrome (that paralyzing fear of putting yourself out there), and shares fresh insights on the legendary 1,000-day principle. Plus, strategies for accountability and effectiveness and answering questions about profitability from hosting events.
CHAPTERS
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:19) Zero-based budgeting for efficiency
(00:...
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February 27, 2025 • 49 mins
Dan sits down with Neel Parekh (CEO of MaidThis Franchise) to talk about the shifts that drive real business growth—why decision-making matters more than productivity, how time compression accelerates success, and why bigger businesses can create more freedom.
They dive into the power of accountability, hiring smarter, and using personal branding to attract the right opportunities. Plus, Neel shares how he scaled through franchis...
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