EP 246: Will She Replace Lori Grenier on Shark Tank? Her Designs Have Sold Brought In Over $1,000,000,000 In Revenue with Tracy Hazzard of HazzDesign

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 5Favorite Book? – Rembrandts in the AtticWhat CEO do you follow? — Ken CourtrightWhat is your favorite online tool?— Get PocketDo you get 8 hours of sleep?— Absolutely not! I got two copies of Thrive for ChristmasIf 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 introduction01:44 – Welcoming Tracy to the show01:46 – What came first?02:00 – Tracy worked for two of the world’s largest design companies from ‘9202.50 – Having a great CV helped her to strike out on her own03:20 – Won an IP battle... but lost money03:58 – Created Hazz Design as a design consulting business04:45 – Tracy has helped launch over 253 retail products04:50 – Those products generated $758,457,260 of client sales04:55 – Tracy and her team have racked up over 98,688 design hours05.30 – ‘Platinum record’ product is the Metrex office chair at Costco06.00 – Received a royalty of 2-3% on chair sales06:30 – Charge a monthly retainer to a client - $10-20,000 per month08:30 – Breaking down the Metrex chair, which retails for around $9908:55 – 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 profit12:20 – Their business model: fees cover costs; royalties on a product line generate profits13:16 – “Ghost design” - why Tracy designs for known brands14:00 – 86% of their designs have sold successfully in the last 10 years14:55 – Tracy and her husband run the business together15.15 – Total 2015 revenue: $500,00015:30 – Currently investing in brand building: WTFFF?! is a podcast on 3D printing16:24 – 30,000 total downloads per month16:40 – Costs around $200 per episode to produce17:40 – Landed first sponsor for $4,000 per month20:40 – Just started writing for Inc in January - recent article hit 15,000 views23:50 – 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