As Dan prepares to leave Barcelona after a month-long stay, this week’s show is all about being able to take time away from your business. Because that is, after all, one of the reasons many listeners to this show are creating lifestyle businesses - whether it’s for parental leave, to pursue a sport or hobby, or perhaps some very necessary mental health wellness. Both Sam Floy, founder of Cofruition, and Neil Callanan, founder of LooseGrip, have planned and executed successful sabbaticals. They share the reasons why, how they planned for it and some of the positive impacts it had on their businesses.

Agencies: creating them, the opportunities they offer, and some of the issues running them can create have been a long running theme on this show. Today Dan talks with Matt Gartland who ran a successful creative agency for eight years before partnering with one of his then clients, Pat Flynn, and eventually becoming CEO of Smart Passive Income (SPI). Matt discusses how he’s helping SPI develop further as a diverse media brand, ways of managing a growing team, and how he sees online communities evolving.

Business processes and systems have been an emerging theme on this show recently. Today Dan reflects on why, and where they fit into the entrepreneurial journey. Aaron Lynn joins Dan to talk about the importance of quick wins as well as long term strategy, the difference between personal and business productivity systems, the importance of meeting cadence, and a whole lot more.

Today’s guest Davis Nguyen initially founded My Consulting Offer, which helps people get management consulting jobs, to raise some ‘money in hand’ to pay a family member’s emergency medical bill. But it’s grown into so much more than that - a business that allows him harass his skills and to live life on his own terms, terms that just weren’t open to him when he was working for top consulting firm Bain & Company.

Through it all, we have been fortunate to talk to some incredibly captivating entrepreneurs on this podcast. In today’s episode, we are revisiting some of our favorite moments and themes from the podcast this year, including thoughts about investing, the challenges of systemizing your business and motivating a team, what bootstrappers can learn from private equity firms (and vice versa), thoughts about the ‘anti-work movement’ and the amazing opportunities offered by places with a lower cost of living than the West but equally great resources.

As 2022 draws to a close Dan and Ian are in a reflective mood. In this week’s show they ponder the ‘lifestyle business take’ on ‘The Parable of the Mexican Fisherman’ and come up with an alternative interpretation involving YouTube. They also discuss some the positives and negatives of their own business year including the results of their ambition to scale Dynamite Jobs, the power of reconnecting in person with colleagues, friends and mentors, and why alignment between founders is critical.

On this week’s show Dan and Ian respond to some listener comments and questions including non-competes and potential conflicts of interest with your current employer when you’re thinking of starting an entrepreneurial side-hustle. They also give their takes on the rewards of creating B2B versus B2C business, and why SOPs haven’t been mentioned on the show for quite some time.

On a recent show Dan and Ian touched on ‘the lifestyle ladder’, and what different levels of personal wealth can mean in your life. Following that they received an interesting email from today’s guest Matt Paulson who today shares why he’s found that achieving substantial personal wealth raises fundamental questions about how you want to spend that money, especially in relation to assessing investment opportunities, raising a family and contributing to a community you value.

Jonathan talks to Dan about how this evolution has provided him with a much more stable portfolio and revenue, and also why he feels ‘got distracted’ and wasted a year trying to develop some ‘Software as a Service’ products. He also discusses how creating a social media presence has helped his personal and agency profile, and why you don’t need to have thousands of followers to achieve that.

In this week’s show, Dan and Ian look at what factors feed into creating ‘digital nomad hotspots’, and the possible new emerging cities suggested by listeners of this podcast, and members of the ‘Dynamite Circle’. They also discuss how they are going about implementing systems in their newest business, ‘Dynamite Jobs’, the pros and cons of those prescribed by ‘Traction’ and ‘Scaling Up’, and why they chose to work with a facilitator.