SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
Would You Sell Your Business to WP Engine for $1m With Troy Dean
27 Jan 2016
Chapter 1: What is the main focus of Nathan Latka's podcast?
This is The Top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base. You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have. I'm now at $20,000 per top. Five and six million. He is hell-bent on global domination. We just broke our 100,000-unit soul mark.
And I'm your host, Nathan Latka. Okay, Top Tribe, this week's winner of the $100 is Rich Jones. Okay, Rich Jones, he is stuck in corporate. He wants to break free. He's binging on the show. For your chance to win $100 every Monday morning, simply subscribe to the podcast right now on iTunes and then text the word NATHAN to 33444 to prove that you did it. Guys, don't forget tomorrow morning.
Tune in. We've got Jay Bean joining us. He went from a $250,000 plus salary to four years making nothing to a $30 million payday in the SMB world with Jay Bean. Okay, Top Shop. Good morning. It's great to be literally in your ears again this morning. You're going to love our guest. His name is Troy Dean. He
is a university dropout turned web developer who's generated over $1.2 million in recurring revenue by teaching his peers through online courses. He's a podcaster, speaker, guitar player, and singer, and he also sang the Cadbury jingle, which many believe is his finest work. Troy, are you ready to take us to the top? All the way, Nathan.
Just to be clear, this was not some, like, you were drunk with your friends on an island and just did the jingle. You actually produced this Cadbury jingle.
Correct. Yeah. It's based on the Beach Boys song, Wouldn't It Be Good? And they rewrote the lyrics, wouldn't it be, sorry, the Beach Boys song is Wouldn't It Be Nice? And they rewrote the lyrics, wouldn't it be good if the world was Cadbury? And the animation and the TV ad was this family going on holiday and all the landmarks are made out of chocolate and they eat the chocolate.
And I sang the jingle and yeah, it went right around Southeast Asia and got played on television and cinemas. So That's kind of one of those memes that I've become infamous for.
Okay, come on. Sing us like one or two measures.
Just come on. No chance, man.
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Chapter 2: Who is Troy Dean and what is his background?
The studio called my agent and said, hey, we want Troy to come in. We know he sings and we think he'd be right for this job. So yeah, that's how that happened.
I love that. I'm curious because I don't know this business. What does Cadbury pay you for something like that?
Um, so that, I think it wasn't as much as you might think. I think that ended up being about 1500 bucks and it was, um, it was used in Australia and, and, um, Hong Kong and New Zealand, I think on, on, uh, TV and cinema. Um, and if, if it had, if it had been played more, like, so the, usually the way it works is you get paid per use.
So if it gets played for like 12 months, you get paid a certain fee. If they want to play it in perpetuity, then they buy out. And so I would have been able to negotiate a higher fee if they wanted to buy it out. So.
What does a typical buyout fee look like for a Cadbury, would you say?
I've been paid five grand before for a buyout, which was just a tagline for an outdoor adventure shop where I just shouted the name of the shop off the... It was like I was standing on the top of a mountain and you shout the tagline. It's called a Sonic brand trigger. You know, you see those computer ads and every time you hear the word Intel, you hear that little
So that's called a sonic brand trigger. So every time you hear the sound, it triggers you to think of the brand. So typically speaking, a sonic brand trigger buyout might be worth about five grand.
Interesting. Okay. So let's fast forward now. What are you focused on now? What are you selling?
So now we sell a business accelerator program for WordPress freelancers, WordPress consultants.
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Chapter 3: How did Troy Dean transition from music to web development?
Do you have an email list? And if so, how big?
Yeah, our email list currently is about 27,000. And we do a lot of Facebook advertising and we drive people to some free resources. So we give away free templates, which are basically parts of the course.
Chapter 4: What is the business accelerator program Troy offers?
And then we put them through a launch sequence where we give them a whole bunch of free training videos. And then at the end of the free training videos, we say, hey, we're open. If you want to join and go deeper, then now's the time. And having the time limit of seven days, I think is a real motivator that, hey, we're open for a week. And when we shut, you have to wait three months.
Last open cart, how much did you spend on Facebook ads? Five grand. To get the 220 new customers? Yep. What were your other big expenses during that launch? time.
Is it just you? No, no, no. We're a team of six, myself, my business partner, one full-time here in Melbourne, two in the Philippines, and one in Malaysia.
Well, guys, there you have it, Troy. This is great. Before we get into my favorite part of the show, Troy, if people want to follow you personally online, not the business, but you personally, where can they do that?
At Troy Dean on Twitter or troydean.com.au.
Okay, Top Tribe, do not forget your chance to win $100 right here on the podcast every Monday. It's very simple. You just subscribe to the show on iTunes. And then once you've done that, text me to prove that you've done it. My number is 703-431-2709. Subscribe now and text me to enter.
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Chapter 5: Why did Troy shift from client work to creating online courses?
703-431-2709. Top Tribe, one of my favorite tools that I use to pump out great blog content and to really hire growth hackers on demand is Growth Geeks. It's a great tool. I use it for my blog, for my images, to help with the podcast production. And I worked out a great deal with the founder because he was on the show. Go to growthgeeks.com forward slash the top to start a free trial right now.
Again, growthgeeks.com forward slash the top. Okay. There you guys have it. Now, Troy, we're about to get to my favorite part of each episode. Do you know what's next? No, I don't. Come on. You're freaking breaking my heart here. It's time for the famous five. Are you ready? Okay. You get a pass. It's like 8am where you are. So you get a pass.
Number one, Troy, what is your favorite business book? Start with why, Simon Sinek. All right. Start with why. It's a good one. Number two, is there a CEO, Troy, that you're following or studying right now?
Yeah, no one will know him. Gary Tramer from LeadChat. He actually works in the same building here. And I every now and then take him out for lunch and just pick his brain because he's just awesome.
And where is here?
In Melbourne at Revolver Creative, which is a co-working space we've got here in Melbourne. Very cool. Out of curiosity, what's it cost to be in the co-working space? Well, I've got a full-time office here, so I pay a couple of grand a month for a full-time office and a couple of car parks and all expenses and high-speed internet. And yeah, it's good.
Cliff bars included? All right. Number three, Troy, is there a favorite online tool you have like Evernote?
Oh, favorite. I've got a love-hate relationship with most of them. You know, look, I'd have to say Infusionsoft, you know, because even though I have a love-hate relationship with it, it's kind of the engine of our business. So, you know, mapping out funnels in Infusionsoft is fun. I spend a lot of time in Infusionsoft.
okay number four uh troy what's your situation are you married single do you have kids married and how many kids no kids okay um yeah you have two businesses those are the kids right now so yes or no are you getting eight hours of sleep every night
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