Episode #122 – Fear & Loafing In Manila: The Story Of Dan & Ian

Post image for Episode #122 – Fear & Loafing In Manila: The Story Of Dan & Ian  

This week Dan is calling in from yet another noisy cafe in the Philippines and Ian is hot off a weekend of motorbike races and pole positions.

Ian’s Trophy Collection From The Weekend

Listener Andrew Ashby dropped the guys a line this week with a simple question: I know you’re a busy dude, but if you have any free-time I’d love to hear more about your background.  I’ve picked some of it up from LBP podcasts, but I’m interested in learning more.  

That’s when the guys realized that newer folks might not know The Story of Dan & Ian. Two parts intrigue, one part San Miguel Light, three parts determination, and a splash of some good fortune and skillz, it is a tale that’s filled with hard-scrabble and laughter that makes the LBP what it is today.

 

Listener Questions
  • Do you have any insight on moving beyond the freelance sites for my copywriting business.  Since the marketplace nature tends to drive rates down, I’d like to expand or at least optimize that system.  Are you aware of any one else in the web-world that has been successful on similar paths?  – From Dan Ferrari
  • Meeting people who follow the site and say “Dude I love your blog I read it every day you are the best for new music” has been the most rewarding thing so far.  But who’s really making money in music? The dj’s and promoters are who throw these events. I’ve looked into sponsoring tours or launching our own but I’m fairly risk averse. Basically, we have an audience that’s spread out across the world. They trust us to be the number one source for electronic dance music. What are some ways I should look to monetize?  - From Ben at White Raver Rafting
Also in the listener questions part of the show, you’ll find out the Why Confidence Is Going To Be Your Most Valuable Growth and Marketing Asset

Mentioned

Just The Tips

Get Your Voice On The LBP
  • Leave us a message. It’s easy to do, and if you mess up, you can easily edit your message until you are ready to send it our way.

Have fun. Leave a comment. Go make it happen! :)

Episode length: 34:03

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If you know some ways we can make it better, please send us an email: Dan at lifestyle business podcast . com.

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Tagged as: Bootstrapping, Business Strategy, Content Marketing, Copywriting, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Freelance Writing, Google Authorship, Philippines, Social Media, Startups, Travel. Business

Published on 09.27.12
  • http://essentialsoftheonlinebusiness.com/ Chris (Krzysztof) Trynkiewicz

    Thanks for the shoutout, guys!
    Today Google confirmed another benefit to claiming authorship: https://www.facebook.com/EssentialsOfTheOnlineBusiness/posts/325303900901471

    The source for the case study is http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-author-photos btw. The increase in CTR was actually in comparison to having a bad photo, but claimed authorship, which is like having no photo at all I guess.

    • http://www.tropicalmba.com Dan

      cheers Chris really appreciate you tipping us off to it!

  • http://www.facebook.com/tim.andrews.311 Tim Andrews

    You constantly talk about Ideal Life Costing and Dreamlines, however, what about wealth accumulation? The guy who throws away a 6 figure per year job in order to live like a bum in SE Asia from writing and selling cheap Chinese crap online doesn’t have a nest egg or a plan for owning assets which serve as a back-up plan and retirement income.

    • http://www.tropicalmba.com Dan

      Yeah how these things dovetail is complex and probably worth a whole discussion on the show, there’s a lot we didn’t make clear here, in particular that the whole trade-off is happening within the framework of being an entrepreneur…. so the primary motivation for giving up the 6 figure job is precisely to build assets… by moving to SEAsia I figured I’d have more time to build out those assets, both because I’d own my time and because I’d hire less expensive software developers (which I needed at the time).

      We should do an episode about wealth and wealth planning, Ian and talk a lot about this stuff, I’ll toss it on the list…

      • http://www.tropicalmba.com Dan

        Ah one other thing that I gotta address that was inherent in what i was trying to say: in the end having a 6 figure job wasn’t a particularly good wealth strategy, but the difficultly of getting off it laid in my vague notion of “success,” not in a long term strategy for the things I really wanted like entrepreneurial success, wealth, or freedom, so by dispelling the comforting notion that “at least having a great job means i’m successful” effectively allowed me to focus on longer term goals I had for myself like owning my own business… ah… i’ll piece something together here…. thanks for the inspiration

        • http://www.facebook.com/tim.andrews.311 Tim Andrews

          Ok, makes sense. I just feel like the majority of lifestyle designer type people who might listen to this show get to the $1.5K-$2K per month income level and live well in SE Asia and then don’t kick on to something meaningful (meaningful income and achievements). In 5-10 years there will be a big black hole on their resume and we will see these people’s heads come up for air and they will probably have to go home with their tails between their legs with no money and 5-10 less years of wealth accumulation under their belts due to the lost time.

          • http://www.tropicalmba.com Dan

            This is really good stuff Tim. I’m going to try to pull something together on it as I think thinking strategically like this is critically important…

          • Adrian

            I’m with Tim on this. It is my goal to be financially free and enjoy the things life has to offer at a pace that doesn’t kill me. But, what are the best strategies for accumulating wealth with spending it all along the way. We are taught to have a deferred life i.e. work until we retire and then sit back and relax and watch the wealth we have accumulated dwindle, but some of us don’t want that. So, I’m trying to figure out how to have both and your input in the form of a podcast would be much appreciated.

  • http://twitter.com/PHitches Patrick Hitches

    Please guys for the love of all your listeners, DO NOT push crossfit in any shape or form… This is my arena and for the health and wellness of everyone the crossfit movement is not a good one… Here’s a write up I did as to why // http://patrickhitches.com/patrick-hitches/crossfit-to-be-or-not-to-be/ If you’d like to talk more about this I’d love to chat.

    Cheers!

    Patrick

    • http://www.tropicalmba.com Dan

      Interesting stuff Patrick, we are so small time that I don’t think you would disapprove (pushups, running, squats). But I’ll keep it tight about this stuff since I’m certain I have no clue what I’m talking about :D

      • http://twitter.com/PHitches Patrick Hitches

        Love it brother.

  • http://ianrobinson.net/ Ian

    Awesome podcast guys. Hearing you guys push through the background Walk Off The Earth cover song gives me nostalgia for the Philippines.

    It’s great to hear the back story! I’d be happy to hear you guys go deeper into how you got started.

    Congratulations on the racing wins Ian.

    keep on rockin in the free world.

    • http://www.tropicalmba.com Dan

      Thanks Ian! Will do in the future…

  • Shayna F. de Oliveira

    I train capoeira angola (Afro-Brazilian martial arts & dance) – ever tried it? Gives you whole new ranges of motion you never knew you had. My instructor can literally trot across the room while in a backbend. I’ll get there someday :-p

    BTW, I followed some of your advice and started talking more to my potential customers about what they’d be interested in buying – got some great feedback about needs and interests (including things that surprised me). When I went and launched the actual product that the majority of people had requested… Fail. Only a very few signed up.

    My question – is it normal, in the beginning, to have to hustle A LOT to get each paying customer? I’m wondering if I just need an astronomically bigger audience, or if I need to test different price points, or what.

    Have a great weekend!

    • http://www.tropicalmba.com Dan

      this would be a good question for the show. do you have a URL we could take a look at???

      we can also take a stab at it generally, just let us know ..

      I’ve known a few folks doing capoeira, to me it just means you are a badass :)

      • Shayna F. de Oliveira

        Y’all have already seen my site – http://www.espressoenglish.net – though it has been significantly redesigned since :-)

        I’m now thinking of building more of an interactive relationship with my readers, as I’ve noticed that most of my customers are repeat customers… and they tend to be folks I’ve corresponded or chatted with over the months they’ve been on my mailing list.

        • http://www.tropicalmba.com Dan

          Cool we’ll take a couple stabs at it !

          • Shayna F. de Oliveira

            To broaden the question out a bit beyond just my site, I’d ask – how can you figure out the difference between what people SAY they want and what they will actually PAY FOR? As my father is fond of reminding me, one does not equal the other.

            I think it’s easier to get customers when the benefits/results of the product are tangible, quantified, or guaranteed. However, I find it hard to do this in the language teaching space, since 1) learning a language is tough and takes time; there are best practices but there is no “magic bullet” and 2) it depends a lot on how much the student actually puts into practice – so I feel all weird saying something like “This course/e-book/method is guaranteed to make you fluent in English or your money back!”

            Anyway, there are a number of successful companies in this area, so I know there’s a market for it. Just need to find my sweet spot!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=6701810 Steven Moody

    For those who haven’t already purchased instapaper: Pocket is a great free alternative that also allows you to save videos to watch later. Biggest downside to Pocket is the lack of a mobile browsing function to obtain more content to read.

    • http://www.tropicalmba.com Dan

      Thanks for the heads up Steven!

  • http://whiteraverrafting.com/ Ben Hebert

    Thanks for including me on this episode of the podcast. I’m working on implementing some of the changes that you guys suggested and will be forwarding you the results. This will eventually lead to a Lifestyle Business Rave party.

    • http://www.lifestylebusinesspodcast.com/ Ian

      Sweet Ben, can’t wait for the party!

  • Re Media

    hey guys. long time listener(but a silent lurker) :) wanted to mention I’m in my 30′s and good shape but somehow got really bad lower back disc. I tried every specialist you can imagine(finally got xrays, told need surgery, cortizone shot) ecetera and thought I was just stuck with it. I finally found a sports medicine guy who told me about a book called Foundation Training($15 on amazon) and with 1 month my backpain is completely gone and ran a couple miles yesterday. Life changing book. It is all about core stengthening exercises. trust me, I tried everything. the book is life changing for me(never got an surgery or anything).

    - Brian

    • http://www.tropicalmba.com Dan

      hey Brian, really appreciate you coming out to the blog to share that with us! I’m assuming this is the title you are talking about:

      http://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Redefine-Your-Conquer-Confidence/dp/1609611004

      No kindle version! Oh my….

      Cheers thank you!

      • Re Media

        yes, that is the book. The book is filled with illustrations of how to properly do the exercises so might be hard to digest with kindle as I had to stand in front of the mirror for a while while referencing the book to make sure I was do it correctly. they have a site FoundationTraining.com and some free youtube videos explaining their core exercises but they guys are the real deal(its who olympians/pro athletes/Lance Armstrong go to).

        I can’t recommend it enough. I even started a placeholder website(its a good short domain name backpainhq.com) a while back to sell back products/maybe ecommerce but kind of left it for later date(i think I have A.D.D. with domains and sticking with them :) ) and now I am not sure if I could honestly recommend any back products(Inversion machines,ecetera….) because they don’t fix back pain problems

        • http://www.tropicalmba.com Dan

          Cheers thanks for the links!!!! Looks awesome… I think Justin Hayes also put these guys on my radar, so it must be legit :)

    • Jeremy

      Congrats Brian.

      I had lower back pain for a few years, took time off work, went through a rough time. I worked with a really amazing chiro who put me on to “Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection” by Dr John Sarno. It’s really some different stuff but his work and program allowed me to stand up and walk away from back problems almost immediately. I went from being on disability to running multiple half marathons a year, training and teaching martial arts, boxing, etc.

      Glad to hear you found something that works for you:)

  • Jeremy

    Just found the Mobility Wod blog from the links in here. I’ve been working on #1 and #2. Have been pretty excited about these two and look forward to more.

    Then I ran across Patrick’s opinions and am now a bit confused.
    Any thoughts on the Mobility WOD blog? I don’t know much about it but it seems ok.

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