Start Making Dreams

Notes on Tropical Talk Radio Volume

2
PersonalOpz
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Also By PersonalOpz
Passions and Other Lessons
Capital is No Longer a Constraint
Cut the Lifeboats
Thanks to Tropical Talk Radio for this inspiring resource.
And my family for further inspiration and support.
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Offshore Incorporation 101 For Internet Business
Owners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Use The Recurring Revenue Test to See If Your
Product is Dead on Arrival . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A Method For Outsourcing Your Job and Living
in the Developing World . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
How to Get (and Keep) 1000s of Blog Subscribers 6
Why Location Independent Entrepreneurs Love
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam . . . . . 7
Is it Possible To Travel Forever? . . . . . . . . . . 8
Subtle Social Media Tactics That Could Change
How You Generate Leads . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
CONTENTS
What is the Best Place for Location Independent
Families? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
ARoadmap (with Case Study) For Replacing Your
Salary in Less Than 6 Months . . . . . . . . . 12
SEOh No! - Sabotage SEO (What to Do About it)
and the Impact of Penguin Updates . . . . . . 14
Creating Profitable In-Person Events . . . . . . . 15
How Hyperfocus In Your Marketing Can Lead To
Broader Business Opportunities . . . . . . . . 16
Welcome LBP Listeners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Above the Fold is Dead 8 Design Tips For Non
Designers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Dreamline 3.0 A Simple Approach to Getting
What You Want in Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Should You Deprioritze Your Income and Go Af-
ter Your Passion? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Working More Doesnt Always Pay Off . . . . . 22
What Were Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
How to Effectively Use Google Adwords . . . . . 25
How To Get Rich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
CONTENTS
How Is It Possible To Raise $100,000 In 4 Days
Without Giving Away Equity Or Taking ALoan? 27
Building Distributed Software Teams in Asia . . 29
What Makes a Great Conference Talk? (And Spe-
cific Takeaways From Outstanding Software
Entrepreneurs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
10 Predictions For 2014 and Beyond . . . . . . . . 32
DCBKK 2013 What Our Speakers Taught Us . . 33
Thanks for Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Preface
Dreams was the theme I noticed in these twenty-five
episodes of Tropical Talk Radio. Following your dreams
should be what life is all about but sometimes it takes
somebody else to remind us that we dont need permission
to do so. You can start today.
Dan and Ian said on the show, You should be evaluating
the trajectory of your life on a regular basis. To do that
they recommend starting by filling out a Dreamline (you
can find the template on the Tropical Talk Radio website)
and writing down what youd like to have, what youd like
to be, and what youd like to do. Follow that by figuring out
what that will cost and what your first steps are. You need
to get control of your cash flow if youre going to control
your time.
Hopefully there is some overlap of what you want to do
and how youre going to pay for it. The advice they gave
was to Design a business that allows you to do what
you are passionate about not just something affiliated with
what you are passionate about. Of course, If it was easy
everybody would do it. But dont let that stop you.
Im going to end with my favorite quote from these pod-
casts. Run into life instead of running away from life.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/dreamlines/
Preface 2
Good luck,
Will
Offshore Incorporation
101 For Internet
Business Owners
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Get accountants and bookkeepers early on.
Get a bookkeeper in year one.
Get an account when you have employees and inventory.
International tax consultant only if really needed.
Foreign Earned Income Exclusion Act excludes about $97k
in personal income if youre outside the U.S. for at least 330
days a year or by qualifying for residence.
You can look into foreign subsidiaries. You can leave profits
in those companies indefinitely.
If youre going to be doing business offshore you want to
have an entity in a respectable location that your customers
will want to do business with.
You have to tell the U.S. government about every bank
account that you open.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/offshore-incorporation-internet-business/
Use The Recurring
Revenue Test to See If
Your Product is Dead on
Arrival
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Your product is going to get commoditized real quick.
Dont go to retail until retail comes to you.
If a product is just used to build a list then you could be
building the wrong product.
Make your marketing budget an asset for you.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/recurring-revenue-test-dead-product/
A Method For
Outsourcing Your Job
and Living in the
Developing World
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
If you are a manager do not quit your job. Convince your
boss that you need to outsource.
The Philippines is the second largest English speaking
country in the world.
Cutting costs is not just dollar for dollar. It is overhead,
insurance, office space, computers
If youre not happy with your job get out of it. Get into
something that is an opportunity for you and evolve it to
where you want to be.
Getting the deal is the most important part.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/method-for-outsourcing-your-job-living-
in-developing-world/
How to Get (and Keep)
1000s of Blog
Subscribers
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Scale business through process.
If you like what you do youll actually be successful.
Have a schedule you stick to.
Youre more motivated to stick to your schedule if you see
money coming in.
Always be audience first.
Info is free. Work is paid.
You cant blog in a bubble.
The people that pay you more tend to require the least
support.
A blog is how you attract new users to your real business.
Affiliate revenue comes from authority.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/get-keep-thousands-blog-subscribers/
Why Location
Independent
Entrepreneurs Love Ho
Chi Minh City (Saigon),
Vietnam
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
shoppingcartlabs.com
Vietnam has amazing foods, cafes everywhere, and fast
wifi.
So much energy can create a sense of stress.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/why-entrepreneurs-love-ho-chi-minh-city/
Is it Possible To Travel
Forever?
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
There is an affiliate marketing subculture.
A regular job is the unsafe option.
Traveling is a life decision.
Look for high commission affiliate deals.
Commission Junction is the place to start.
If you use credit cards effectively you get bonus points,
fraud protection, etc.
Have a name that gives you an idea what the site is about.
One to three articles a week.
Nose + Grindstone.
Be an advocate for your readers.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/tmba31-is-it-possible-to-travel-forever/
Subtle Social Media
Tactics That Could
Change How You
Generate Leads
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Hashtags are great to find something on a certain event.
You want your tweets to be less than 140 characters so they
can be retweeted.
You get more click throughs if you add your commentary
to a link you tweet.
Absolutely believe in everything you put online.
Aim for a long tail build.
Use hashtags judiciously.
At bootstrap scale it needs to be you.
On Facebook if youre not paying to show your posts then
they wont be shown as much.
Youve got to be putting out interesting stuff.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/subtle-social-media-tactics-change-how-
you-generate-leads/
Subtle Social Media Tactics That Could Change How You Generate
Leads 10
Twitter cuts through the noise. It is voices you trust to cut
through the content.
Buffer is a good tool for Twitter.
What is the Best Place
for Location
Independent Families?
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Greenback Tax Services
Kids dont have a preconceived notion of what life is like.
For small kids home is tied to their parents rather than a
place.
Health insurance is for peace of mind with a family.
Toys made outside of the U.S. might still have lead or other
things like that.
Sometimes easier to bring a nanny with you.
$3k to $4k a month for an apartment in Rio for a family of
four.
More expensive to have a baby in Rio than in the U.S.
No healthcare in Bali.
International schools are good in foreign countries.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/tmba33-what-is-the-best-place-for-
location-independent-families/
A Roadmap (with Case
Study) For Replacing
Your Salary in Less Than
6 Months
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Pricing evolves as you learn what clients want and what
they value more.
Bring in people that want the services you offer and find
out exactly what they want.
SOP (standard operating procedure).
APHD (Apprentice. Productize. Hire. Diversification.)
People abandon ideas too soon.
The first year in your business is about you having a level
of grit and determination that most people just dont have.
If it was easy everybody would do it.
Pain points are visible if youre engaged.
There is so much emphasis put on ideas and not enough
emphasis put on execution.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/tmba-34-a-roadmap-case-study-for-
replacing-your-salary-in-less-than-half-a-year/
A Roadmap (with Case Study) For Replacing Your Salary in Less Than
6 Months 13
Execution is another word for consistent, focused daily
action.
SEOh No! - Sabotage SEO
(What to Do About it)
and the Impact of
Penguin Updates
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Disavow negative links through Google.
Disavow links at the domain level.
Reconsideration requests from Google only work with
manual penalties.
99% of penalties are algorithmic penalties.
Check your analytics.
Penguin penalties (anchor text variation) refresh at times.
Create a new page. Build foundational links.
Building a brand is the ultimate SEO.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/seo-sabotage-penguin-updates/
Creating Profitable
In-Person Events
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
http://www.appsevents.com/
Two costs: costs of venue and costs of speakers.
Revenue is money from sponsors or exhibitors and money
from ticket sales.
Make sure everything (tables, wifi, etc.) is included.
Have a lower price for people that register early (early bird
price). Helps you with inventory. Gives you flexibility to
change pricing to get rid of all tickets.
Dont be scared to do bulk deals.
Never pay for business class for speakers.
Try to get local people to speak.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/creating-profitable-events/
How Hyperfocus In Your
Marketing Can Lead To
Broader Business
Opportunities
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Autoresponders.
What matters isnt how good the product is but how you
can pass on information about them.
Online marketers need to acquire trust and attention.
To move up in business you need to have strategic relation-
ships. To get those relationships you need to prove yourself.
Network up. Niche down.
If you just work youre a martyr. If you just talk youre a
charlatan.
Go and meet people that are already doing it.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/focused-marketing-business-opportunities/
Welcome LBP Listeners
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Spotlight marketing.
Fix format problems.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/welcome-lbp-listeners/
Above the Fold is Dead
8 Design Tips For Non
Designers
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
You need high-impact copy at the top that says exactly
what it is you do.
The most important part of a website is the body text.
You need good typography and contrast in your text to
make things stand out.
Dont use too many different fonts.
Line height needs to be 1.4 to 1.6 times the size of your text.
typecast.net
When in doubt be literal (in regards to your headline).
Color is the easiest thing to fixate on so people tend to go
overboard.
Have an action color on your website.
White space creates balances in your design.
Dont use stock photography.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/does-good-website-design-matter/
Above the Fold is Dead 8 Design Tips For Non Designers 19
You have peoples attention for eight seconds if you are
lucky.
It is difficult for entrepreneurs to not want to be everything
to everybody all of the time.
Dreamline 3.0 A Simple
Approach to Getting
What You Want in Life
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Write down examples of what you want to be having, what
you want to be being, and what you want to be doing.
A linear path is a plannot a dream.
Youre trying to align your micro-decisions.
Eliminate things that arent contributing to your goals.
Eliminating things decreases overhead. (Live simply.)
It is basically an operating document for your personal life.
Dont share your dreamlines with other people. Talking
about things prematurely often screws things up.
Only share with people you call partner (business or life
partners).
You should be evaluating the trajectory of your life on a
regular basis.
If you dont decide where youre going there is a long line
of people that will tell you where to go.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/dreamlines/
Should You Deprioritze
Your Income and Go
After Your Passion?
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Meaning is the new luxury for our generation.
Look at what you did naturally as a teenager without being
forced to do it.
Design a business that allows you to do what you are
passionate about not just something affiliated with what
you are passionate about.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/passion/
Working More Doesnt
Always Pay Off
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Stop buying dreams and start making dreams.
Productivity is a measure of output per unit of input.
If youre consuming youre not producing.
Consumption can help be inspired.
Parkinsons Law: The amount of time a task will take is the
amount of time you give it.
Ask yourself what is the intended result.
Tie actions to a specific result.
Book: Work the System by Sam Carpenter.
You should only have six people reporting to you.
The one big thing. What is the one thing you can do
daily/weekly/monthly to move your business forward?
Double-down and focus.
Systematize the six people that are most important to your
business success.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/productivity/
Working More Doesnt Always Pay Off 23
Listen to the nature of your procrastination.
Pomodoro sprints.
Book: Getting Things Done
Dont rely on habits to get things done.
What Were Reading
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
The more power we have the more institutions that exist
exert more power back on us.
If you cant communicate your vision then how are people
going to get onboard with it?
Movie: Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Run into life instead of running away from life.
Thought space is the ultimate wealth.
Take a long term view but like where you are at right now.
Book: The Unconventional Rules of Investing
Invest in teams that can do it without you.
Cashflows scale.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/readingmaterial/
How to Effectively Use
Google Adwords
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Youve got to be selling something to have paid traffic.
If youre investing in SEO you should be investing in paid
traffic.
You nowneed to pay to have your product listed in Googles
store.
95% of Internet sites serve ads of some sort.
Retarget a silent list.
A lot of times people make purchases based on emotion.
Know the value of a visitor.
Know your margins.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/adwords/
How To Get Rich
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Just get in the door.
Trend following in trading means you never get in at the
bottom and sell at the top.
If you find something that works dont question whether
you got lucky. Just stick with it.
There are a lot of people that have a lot of money but dont
have a lot of power.
Hot money jumps around trying to chase returns.
Educating yourself is a good way to invest money into your
business.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/rich/
How Is It Possible To
Raise $100,000 In 4 Days
Without Giving Away
Equity Or Taking A
Loan?
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Leverage relationships as a way to change your life.
Surround yourself with people who know what theyre
talking about.
Ask why five times and then you can start innovating.
Be passionate to get through the hard days.
Shut the hell up when somebody is telling you what they
think of your idea. Figure out later if that feedback is good
or not.
Locate yourself somewhere important.
The way business is being done is shifting faster than big
institutions can adapt.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/crowdsourcing/
How Is It Possible To Raise $100,000 In 4 Days Without Giving Away
Equity Or Taking A Loan? 28
The money that comes in for a Kickstarter project is to be
spent on the project and nothing else.
Building Distributed
Software Teams in Asia
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
$275-$325 a month for fresh out of college programmers.
Senior developers can go for $2,000 to $2,2000 a month.
Look at whether things are worth doing.
Self improvement doesnt need to be adding things. It can
be subtracting things as well.
Get yourself in shape the old fashioned way.
It is a bad idea to use Modafinil as a sleep avoidance
strategy.
It helps to be in the same location as your developers as
youre learning your strengths and weaknesses.
The average education of a graduating computer scientist
is higher in the U.S. than is Asia.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/distributed/
What Makes a Great
Conference Talk? (And
Specific Takeaways
From Outstanding
Software
Entrepreneurs)
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Focus on your craft.
Track customers during the trial period.
Raise your price.
Know if youre in the learning stage and if it has potential
to get to the scale stage.
Your acquisition costs should be one-third of the lifetime
value of your customer.
Dont tell people how hard youre working for them. Show
them.
Do not project your problems onto your customer.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/prague/
What Makes a Great Conference Talk? (And Specific Takeaways From
Outstanding Software Entrepreneurs) 31
You have to take a credit card to know people are serious.
Feedback of people that have paid you money is worth ten
times that of people that havent paid you money.
Start a talk with what youre going to tell the audience and
the benefits.
Show what life is like before the problem and what is is like
after you solved the problem.
10 Predictions For 2014
and Beyond
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
There are still location dependent jobs.
People still need a physical connection.
Hire people not where you get arbitrage opportunities but
where you get optimization opportunities.
booking.com
The role of a city evolves.
You have more of an interest to connect when youre
uprooting and going somewhere.
You need to get control of your cash flow if youre going to
control your time.
If the network is out of your control you need to figure out
a way to leverage it.
Virtual currencies will happen out of necessity, out of
frustration, out of pain.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/predictions/
DCBKK 2013 What Our
Speakers Taught Us
Link: Tropical Talk Radio
Never brag about money.
Dont talk about your future plans.
It is not validated unless they have paid you money.
Dont believe your hype.
Home offices arent always a great idea.
Net 30 is for suckers.
Keep your family and business completely separated.
Dont resolve internal conflicts on social media.
Dont link your business name to your Google accounts.
Dont purchase inventory before your customers have bought
the product.
The only thing more important than being nice is revenue.
Design is a defensible competitive advantage.
Design is where you can set your business apart.
http://www.tropicalmba.com/conference/
DCBKK 2013 What Our Speakers Taught Us 34
Record what you would do during a client meeting or a
sales presentation. Put that on your website.
authorityengine.com
What gear are you in?
Select the right lever.
Plan on success. Write stuff down.
Be deliberate with your social media.
Dont fall into a trap.
Keep your expenses low but dont let that limit what you
can really make.
With great responsibility comes great power.
Entrepreneurs make themselves responsible for things like
the outcomes of their clients and the future of their indus-
tries.
Thanks for Reading
Thank you for reading Start Making Dreams. If you en-
joyed it you can visit the PersonalOpz blog to read other
tips Ive accumulated on business and life. There you can
also sign up for the mailing list where youll be sent future
books for free.
Please dont hesitate to email me (will@personalopz.com)
with any questions or comments.
Thanks again,
Will
http://www.personalopz.com/blog/