Tracy Hazzard, CEO of Hazz Design. Tracy is the co-designer of over 250 products, generating over $1 billion at retail. She also co-hosts the WTFFF?! Podcast, and writes for Inc magazine. Listen as Nathan and Tracy talk about her wildly successful design business, the ins and outs of starting a podcast, and just how the profits from an office chair are broken down.
Famous 5
Favorite Book? – Rembrandts in the Attic
What CEO do you follow? — Ken Courtright
What is your favorite online tool?— Get Pocket
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Absolutely not! I got two copies of Thrive for Christmas
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— Recognise the power of not having to do everything yourself. Team up with experts.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:00 – Nathan’s introduction
01:44 – Welcoming Tracy to the show
01:46 – What came first?
02:00 – Tracy worked for two of the world’s largest design companies from ‘92
02.50 – Having a great CV helped her to strike out on her own
03:20 – Won an IP battle... but lost money
03:58 – Created Hazz Design as a design consulting business
04:45 – Tracy has helped launch over 253 retail products
04:50 – Those products generated $758,457,260 of client sales
04:55 – Tracy and her team have racked up over 98,688 design hours
05.30 – ‘Platinum record’ product is the Metrex office chair at Costco
06.00 – Received a royalty of 2-3% on chair sales
06:30 – Charge a monthly retainer to a client - $10-20,000 per month
08:30 – Breaking down the Metrex chair, which retails for around $99
08:55 – Chair costs: $50 to build; $10 to transport; $2 design royalty; $8 sales royalty
09:56 – From Costco’s perspective: profit per chair around $29 gross
11:22 – Metrex sales from 2010 to date - around 1 million units; $1 million profit
12:20 – Their business model: fees cover costs; royalties on a product line generate profits
13:16 – “Ghost design” - why Tracy designs for known brands
14:00 – 86% of their designs have sold successfully in the last 10 years
14:55 – Tracy and her husband run the business together
15.15 – Total 2015 revenue: $500,000
15:30 – Currently investing in brand building: WTFFF?! is a podcast on 3D printing
16:24 – 30,000 total downloads per month
16:40 – Costs around $200 per episode to produce
17:40 – Landed first sponsor for $4,000 per month
20:40 – Just started writing for Inc in January - recent article hit 15,000 views
23:50 – Famous Five
3 Key Points:
You don’t have to do everything yourself. Team up with consultants, experts and mentors to be more effective.
Invest in brand building by educating people about your area of expertise.
Working for a recognised company gives you a pedigree and contacts to strike out on your own.
Resources Mentioned:
Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
The Top is FOR YOU if you are:
A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)
STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)
An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)
The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).
Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.
Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop