Podcast appearances and mentions of alex mcclafferty

In 2013, Alex McClafferty co-founded WP Curve, a company that provided IT support for people with a WordPress site. 

Today’s co-host is Alex McClafferty. Alex is the co-founder of WP Curve and a CEO coach. Since selling WP Curve to GoDaddy a few years ago, he’s spent a lot of time traveling and spending time with friends and family. But like most entrepreneurs, he wasn’t about to sit still for very long. He started coaching CEOs, and runs a Consultant to CEO program.

This week, I sat down for a chat with Alex McClafferty, the co-founder of WP Curve, a subscription-based productized service that helps WordPress site owners to fix and improve their sites with unlimited 30 minute tasks, all for one low monthly fee. In 2016, GoDaddy acquired WP Curve and Alex joined GoDaddy to help them […]

  Today on the show we have Jake Jorgovan. Jake is a friend of mine who I met many years ago collaborating around content marketing, and he has continued to grow and thrive with content marketing.  Particularly, he is known for having really great transparency in his content, sharing what he's doing in his business, the exact templates and processes for how he's doing it, and even how he's feeling in both the highs and lows of his business. He's going to talk about that today, and how that's built a trust and a bond with his audience that's very strong. We're also going to learn from him on how he creates his pillar content, which drives a lot of leads and recognition, and attention to his different businesses. And finally, we're going to learn about how he manages himself and how he manages his team.  He not only sees himself as a manager trying to make people get things done, but he sees himself as a leader and a coach. Taking time out of his week to personally improve each of his team members. So without any further ado, let's hand it over to Jake.     What You Will Learn On This Episode The Art of Team Building Coaching Up to Get Your Ideal Employee Content Creation that Converts The Importance of Transparency Creating the Number One Resource on the Internet for Your Niche   Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode Lead Cookie Content Allies jake-jorgovan.com   Transcription Kyle Gray: Hello and welcome to The Story Engine Podcast. My name is Kyle Gray and today on the show we have Jake Jorgovan. Jake is a friend of mine who I met many years ago collaborating around content marketing, and he has continued to grow and thrive with content marketing. Particularly, he is known for having really great transparency in his content, sharing what he's doing in his business, the exact templates and processes for how he's doing it, and even how he's feeling in both the highs and lows of his business. He's going to talk about that today, and how that's built a trust and a bond with his audience that's very strong.   Kyle Gray: We're also going to learn from him on how he creates his pillar content, which drives a lot of leads and recognition, and attention to his different businesses. And finally, we're going to learn about how he manages himself and how he manages his team. He not only sees himself as a manager trying to make people get things done, but he sees himself as a leader and a coach. Taking time out of his week to personally improve each of his team members. So without any further ado, let's hand it over to Jake.   Kyle Gray: Jake Jorgovan, welcome to the Story Engine Podcast. It's so good to have you on the show.   Jake Jorgovan: Thanks for having me on here, Kyle.   Kyle Gray: So as we first got on this call, we were reminiscing. We had connected maybe four years ago, working at WP Curve together. And it's been a big journey since then. You've done a lot of different work in content marketing and building teams, and building brands. And I'm excited to explore that all. And I want to introduce you properly with a story, and ask you what is a defining moment in your life that has brought you to who you are today and serving the people that you serve today?   Jake Jorgovan: I think probably one of the most defining moments was the start of what became, I guess my nomadic journey. And I've been doing the digital nomad thing for almost I think five years now. And prior to that, I ran my first business, which was this video agency and we had this big office, and I cared a lot about what everybody thought of me. I could have taken home way more money if we hadn't spent it on making our office look really cool and hip.   Jake Jorgovan: And then I left that business and I went and I tried this healthcare startup, which was this horrible thing. But I had some investor who was , "Video technology, I'm going to give you money for this startup." And it was this first horrible cataclysmic entrepreneurial fail of my career, and it was at no fault of the business model. It was , "What am I doing? Why am I in a healthcare startup?" And so I basically left that. And at that point I had a four hour work week, and literally bought a ticket to Mexico for my then girlfriend, and now wife and myself.   Jake Jorgovan: And started this journey of traveling and working remotely, and figuring out how to make a living abroad, and everything. And that was this huge, really turning point of everything and that's when literally my personal brand and my blog started. I had done a little bit before then but that's really when I got serious about it was when I was , "Well, I'm not around anybody. So I'm going to write a lot." And that's the moment when everything in life changed and also when actually the personal brand started as well.   Kyle Gray: I think that's really cool. A powerful moment. A brave decision no doubt, but you had some good foundational skills that you could rely on. And you had the ability to learn new skills along the way and you've done an amazing job at it. So why don't you tell us a little bit about what you're up to and what you're doing today, and kind of connect the loop between that defining moment, that bold move that you made those years ago? And what's become of you since then?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah. So basically the journey between is basically the next four years. I don't know probably three years of kind of chaotic and freelancing, and consulting, and trying a variety of things, and really figuring stuff out. And then it was about two years ago. Actually is it? Two years and one day ago I literally started what became Lead Cookie, which is the primary business that I'm running now, or the main business. Which is done for you LinkedIn lead generation service.   Jake Jorgovan: And so there's a lot of consulting and personal branding, and various things that I attempted for years. And then Lead Cookie was the first, I guess real entrepreneurial success I've had that's taken off, where we're doing done for you LinkedIn outreach. And then basically it was about six months ago, started up Content Allies, which is a content marketing agency where we're focusing on basically helping turn consultants into thought leaders. Basically people who are experts in their field, but don't have time to write. So that's what I'm doing today and the abridged journey of how I got there.   Kyle Gray: What do you think some of the key skills are that have led you to where you are today?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah. I think one of the biggest things I think that comes to mind that I don't know if it's as much of a skill as it is a realization that I have, but it's this idea that your business is a reflection of yourself. And it was not too long before Lead Cookie, It was probably about a year before Lead Cookie, I tanked really hard. And I was living in Colorado, marijuana was legal. I was smoking and I was not in good habits.   Jake Jorgovan: It was a bad point of life, and I see a lot of people don't realize that are struggling and fumbling around is they don't realize that your personal habits, your routines, your health, the vices that you give into or don't give into. All of those impact your ability to produce in business.My life wasn't so much chaos that I couldn't get myself to focus or do the things that I needed to do. And when you get all of those out of the way and you get your own life in order, and your own family in order, it's way easier to show up and do the work when life is nice and orderly and not chaotic and not total randomness.   Kyle Gray: That's powerful. And Yeah, a big transition that is a lot of different subtle changes. Along this journey too, I'm sure you've made a lot of really big or scary investments. And one of my favorite questions of late is what's a big investment that you've made on this journey that maybe at first was scary or you weren't sure about it and then it's really paid off?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah, yeah, I think the biggest one is definitely investing in coaching with Alex McClafferty who is one of the co-founders WP Curve, which is who you were working for at the time and he sold his business to GoDaddy and made an awesome company. And so investing in coaching with him was super scary because it's , "Oh man, I am not even making great consistent income already and I'm going to now pay for advice. " And I guess a scary moment, but it's the ROI on that, I am a completely transformed and different entrepreneur as a result of it and have built a great business. I'm building a second business and the skills that have come out of it it's even if I never worked with Alex again it would have been one of the best investments I've ever made. And I think that that's really true regardless of where you invest, but taking that step to invest in yourself in some capacity is super valuable and important.   Kyle Gray: Yeah. Tell me a little bit about the qualities of a business now as a result of this coaching, or as a result of this work you've done. When you are looking at a business now and the health of a business, and the health of your team, and everything going on, what's important to you now and what are you really looking for in something you create?   Jake Jorgovan: Actually I wrote a whole article this week on thinking through business models, because of Lead Cookie, it's been a great business. I've built it up, but ultimately I built this company where we've got about 60 customers on retainer. We've got a team of 26, but I built it on a short-term marketing tactic. LinkedIn outreach, it's going to get disrupted, it's built on someone else's platform and it's only a matter of time before things change. So when I started it was "How can I make money? I want a business." And I literally wrote down a weakness , "LinkedIn could change some day." And "Oh, that's all right. I'll figure that out down the line." And then I'd get into it and "Oh wow, that's actually really hard to figure out once you've built this whole thing."   Jake Jorgovan: And I built a weak business model from the start. So the second time around with Content Allies a lot of what I'm thinking through of the qualities of a business. I want to build a business that is stable, it is not prone to external disruption, it is valuable and has a strong offer and value proposition. So it's not a commodity that I'm selling that's hard to get in the door, but the big thing is I want to build something that gives me freedom of time and gives me stability so that I know once it's built I never have to worry about money again. What I'm aiming for with Content Allies is to build that stable engine that is a great business. Where even if I don't scale it up to huge to make it rich, it's to know that I've built something that gives me freedom and that is super important. So I guess freedom of time and stability with that as well.   Kyle Gray: Absolutely. One of the things that you mentioned before we got on the call that you credit some of your success is being incredibly transparent in your writing and in your personal brand, and that driving a lot of the growth and interest for the businesses that you're working for. Can you give me some examples of what this kind of transparency looks like, and some principles that guide you around sharing the details of what's going on behind the scenes of your business?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah, so basically I'm an advocate of being a completely open book. Even internally with my team, we share numbers, we share revenue, we share profit, we share everything and I've always been totally open with it with my team. And so it wasn't that unnatural for me to start sharing that out with my audience. So I started publishing playbooks. You can find the exact sales scripts that I use on my website. You can find the exact scripts we use for our LinkedIn outreach and everything. I've literally published the dashboard that we track and how we measure. I've tracked our sales flow charts and how we run everything, and so I started giving away all of the playbooks and inner workings of my business.   Jake Jorgovan: And so that was this first level of transparency and then I think there's this more subtle one of that was I think, I guess a bit more tactical and easy to see. But then whenever I was actually starting up Content Allies I went through probably about three different iterations of this before I landed on simple content marketing agency with a specific persona. But I kept trying these different things and at one point I had had it going and I was basically doing a virtual assistant service for content marketers to support them with everything surrounding their uploading, and the content management process and all of those little tasks. Which sounds kind of good and theory, but it was this horrible business to run. I'd even signed these customers and I think we had 11 customers on board but it was going horribly, and no one was happy. And half the people we couldn't even get through the on-boarding and it was , "This is a nightmare business that I've got myself into."   Jake Jorgovan: So I literally shut it all down. I refunded it and I wrote up this article it was , "I'm shutting it down." Or something like that  the first word was failure effen sucks. And then it was this super raw post about the emotional feeling of it, why I was shutting it down, what I learned. And I got 60 responses from my email list. It was this crazy pouring in of responses, and feedback, and positive encouragement, and people that could relate. And it was this crazy level of engagement that I had never seen from my email list before. And that was where I noticed this shift where these people that were then buying Lead Cookie or even when I eventually relaunched something new. These people were so engaged and had become loyal fans that they were buying if they could, and if they weren't buying they were referring me to other people.   Jake Jorgovan: So it was this crazy putting yourself rawness out there I think creates this emotional connection and loyalty that people got behind. And it wasn't maniacal, it happened. I put it out there and that was what happened as a result.   Kyle Gray: It seems this is a result of a long series of practice. Did this start from a certain habit, at WP Curve they did a monthly transparency post? Or have you always been sharing what's ever, or sharing your revenue and been an open person?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah, I've been publishing articles or writing for a long time now and I think, I don't know, the transparency is stuff that I always noticed seemed to resonate with people. And I saw that other people did it and I always did it. It definitely made me interested in their content whenever you're able to not see some of the numbers, but you're really able to see into the weight of things or ... Once you get into entrepreneurship and you actually have some success, you start to be able to see the people that are posturing and putting out fru-fru stuff that makes them look really legit. And then you start to see the people that are real and they're , "Hey, this is hard." And I resonated so much more with the people that weren't showing off all the time and actually put out the real stuff. So I think I always tried to emulate that as I connected with those people a lot.   Kyle Gray: Yeah. Are there any risks to this kind of transparency? I think off the cuff somebody might think putting your sales scripts out there that you're currently using in your company that it might actually be harmful to you in some ways. Have you found risks or do the rewards outweigh them for you?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah, I mean I have no doubt that people are, heck, I know competitors of mine even personally who are trying to use and take our scripts, or even take my sales scripts and use and stuff. And so I know that I have spawned a bunch of competitors. It's been a bunch of up and coming competitors that are hiring me for these to get advice. So it definitely can spawn that, but to me the rewards are worth it. I think that most cases the implementation is always way harder than the knowledge. And so even if you can give someone a bunch of the tactical stuff, the scripts, or frameworks , it takes a really experienced person to actually build a real business. I have no doubt that there are some people out there who have taken what we've done and they've built some small businesses, but to get something of actual substance that takes a lot of subtle things that you can't learn from an article or a blog post. So in my mind, I do think the rewards outweigh the risks there.   Kyle Gray: Very cool. As far as great content goes, something that you're trying to create in your agency, and something that you're trying to create for yourself. What are some of the qualities of really good content that you want to create and share on your own personal brand, and create for other people?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah, so there's two ways that I look at this and I'm literally putting together this guide for consultants now on the approach, but I think that the cornerstone content or pillar content, whatever you want to call it. I'm a big believer that if you have your area of expertise, figuring out how you can create the number one resource on the internet for whatever it is your niche topic of choice is. That is definitely what I believe is really important. So for Lead Cookie we did a how to guide to LinkedIn lead generation. Huge, huge marketing piece for us. generated so many leads. It has been the biggest asset. We have tons of times where people tell us, "Yeah, I talked to competitors but you guys give your scripts away, and I read your whole approach and am amazed at it. So I'm going to hire you guys." And so that cornerstone content or the one humongous ultimate guide to that resource-   Kyle Gray: Did you write that article and then launch the business? Or did you come up with that process, or I did the article validate the process in a way?   Jake Jorgovan: I think the article came out about three to four months after we launched the business. So I had done it for myself.   Jake Jorgovan: We had done it for several customers at that point and we had some really great results. So it was refined enough by that point that I was able to actually put together something really powerful there.   Kyle Gray: And these aren't short 1,500 word articles. This is probably a 7,000 or so word article or something in that range, right?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah, super in depth. And then what we did is we put a content upgrade. If you want the scripts you had to opt in and so that again helps drive a bunch of more engagement and everything as well. But that for Lead Cookie was huge and one of the biggest things that I think if you have if you're in a space where you can create something like that and again, I think the biggest mentality is you can't throw up a halfway done article. It has to be the best thing out there. Better than what anyone else has put and that's what I aim for, and it's done a phenomenal for us.   Kyle Gray: That's really cool. And with an article this, are you deciding based on a business model, based on a keyword? Are you incorporating all of these different elements into what goes into this a pillar article?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah. I had the idea of using search as kind of a guide, but ultimately it's you don't try to fit it into a search term or something. And so we have optimized it around LinkedIn. Lead generation as some key terms around there, but it's not what I wrote it for. It was this is what it's about. This is what we do and this is what we're going to teach people. And it ranks on Google and stuff. It's not always the top, but the quality of it. Where it has gotten way more traction is , "Hey, someone ..." I'll wake up to 20 leads in the morning because I want to put it in a Facebook group or dropped it on Reddit. And so the search is useful, but I focus more on making sure that it is great for whatever the topic is, and that's actually going to benefit someone who reads it.   Kyle Gray: Yeah. And so a better strategy for somebody starting out who's an expert in what they do might be to create a single definitive piece of content on what it is you do, and how you do it down to the details. And maybe a couple of months or however long it takes to develop it rather than making 12 different articles that don't quite dig as deep or really serve you as well.   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah and I think, and again, it works well if you've got that area of expertise. Another one that I did as a consulting project before Lead Cookie, which is kind of become the foundation of the agency is we had a consultant who did IT software negotiations. And so we wrote up this ultimate guide on how to negotiate with Salesforce. And again, this ranked really well. It was super valuable to his target prospects and he ended up generating over half a million dollars of business from it. And then it became the sales asset that helped him close everything else as well. So it was one article. That was all it is. One article literally generated over half a million for his business. So yeah, I definitely say that that's more or less the case and if it's not clear to you what that is yet or maybe you're still figuring out your niche. I think that's where writing shorter form articles helps you flush out your message, and figure out what it is you want to say. Because it's better to put something out than nothing. But I think if you've got that deep domain expertise, and you can really own a topic then you're better off building that one huge piece as opposed to a bunch of smaller ones.   Kyle Gray: But for most and for you and your team, creating these hugely definitive articles is no longer a one person job. Tell me a little bit about the team that you've put together and how you manage several different minds all crafting one huge article.   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah. So to be honest, I guess the LinkedIn stuff, that still has come mainly from me. I definitely pull on my team to copy edit it, and I've pulled in designers to help build put the guide together and stuff. But at this point the LinkedIn guide has pretty much come from me. When I did the Salesforce guide I interviewed the expert individual and basically built that guide from his interviews. And that's kind of what we're doing now as well with Content Allies. So I think if you're not the capable writer yourself then you can have someone interview you and get it done, but I think ultimately having it come from whoever is the most expert and they share the ideas. I think that that's the most powerful thing to get their raw ideas. I think too many minds and it can definitely create some chaos, but you may need to pull on some strengths. Whether that's writers, or designers, or marketers to actually get that all executed and actual live on the website, and everything that.   Kyle Gray: And with Lead Cookie where you're trying to recreate the same experience, or advantage that you've created for yourself with your clients. How do you keep a team all working together? So the writer is interviewing the expert, and then maybe you have graphic design or other elements informing after the fact?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah, yeah. So basically the Content Allies the way we work or we structure it is we have a lead strategist for each customer. And that strategist owns the interview process with the customer, and owns kind of all the topic, brainstorming and organization. And then underneath them basically we will put in contract writers, and designers to support everything around there. So one person that kind of owns the strategy, and then I think a lot of those other pieces can be contract and you can even pull in contract writers to support. But that's at least how we've structured it on the Content Allies front.   Kyle Gray: That's cool. So it's all about having the strategy the secret sauce in house?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah. It's someone that can own that process and be the point of contact to pull that expertise out of someone's head, and that's the most important part for us.   Kyle Gray: That's really challenging to find somebody with a blend of interpersonal, creative and writing skills.   Jake Jorgovan: Yes one of the things that I guess in terms of team building them that I'm huge believer of is you got to find with the right attitude, and the right personality for these types of roles. But you're never going to hire someone that you're going to put in and they're going to be perfect. So I'm a huge believer of investing in your team. So my lead strategists, this is also on the Lead Cookie side for outbound, but I don't believe you're going to hire someone and they're going to be great. So I hire them and I coach the heck out of my team, and have one on ones with them every week. Level them up and it's not , "One-on-one accountability checking in to make you do your stuff." It's , "Let me give you mental models to think through. Let me teach you frameworks. So this is what I've learned from my experiences." So whenever I bring on team members it is not , "Do this work." It is , "I am going to be coaching you to becoming a far better professional than you are today." And that is enticing to most of the time the people that come work with me, and it does level them up and creates these super valuable team members as well.   Kyle Gray: That is really interesting and really different. It's an approach I don't hear very often but I can see the value in that. Especially in a small business, in a small elite team where you really want to get the most from everybody. Do you have a way that you can consistently come up with ideas for how to train, for how to enhance if you're doing these one-on-ones? Or maybe there's particular themes that you've been working on, are you spending time planning your coaching in advance?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah, so we basically do an agenda every week with my team. So we always open it up with the question , how are you? And chatting and stuff and learning. We'll typically have some discussion points and some of those may be points that I realized over the week of working with them on coaching. So, for example, one of the lessons I was teaching, Jess, who's one of my lead strategists at Content Allies was , "Hey, you've got to walk the line of doing what the customer wants and challenging them when what we believe is best for them is not what they actually ask for." And so challenging her how to walk that line is , you know, it's a very fuzzy thing and so teaching or that is an ongoing thing. And so there's things that you recognize that the challenges that people come up with and that's a big part of it.   Jake Jorgovan: But one tactical thing I do every week is I use this question called The One Thing Question from a book called The One Thing by Gary Keller. And it's what is the one thing you can do this week such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? So for any of my team members who are in a building mode where they're actually creating processes, or creating something new, or moving are responsible for objectives are not in an operator mode. I'll ask them this question and it's often I try to let them figure out what the answer is of , "Hey, here's the quarterly target you have. Here's where we are today. What is the one thing that's going to move you closer to that?" And they'll kind of bring up maybe that's, "I need to build this asset." Or, "I need to get this in place." Or, "I need to train so and so."   Jake Jorgovan: But using that question each week and then checking in on it the next week to make sure they actually did it. That's been a really good piece to get people out of their head and scattered, and really focused on tackling one big thing at a time.   Kyle Gray: That's powerful. Really, really good information and very simple and easy to implement into anybody's business. Jake, it's been such a pleasure exploring so many different areas of content, of team building, business building and transparency. Do you have any last thoughts to close us out with, and where can we go to learn more about you?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah, I think the biggest thing I'll say is the ultimate thing that I came back to and one of the things is your business is a reflection of yourself. So the more you can invest in yourself, your own education, you know it's there's someone that brought the metaphor of investing in yourself is literally it's compound interest in a bank account. You put in money and it's gone first, but then over time it grows and investing in yourself, and then getting your own mental space good. Your own personal routines and habits, your family life good. All of that is absolutely key to any level of growth. So that'd be one of my biggest key takeaways.   Kyle Gray: Thank you so much, Jake. And where can we go to learn more about you?   Jake Jorgovan: Yeah. The personal website is jake-jorgovan.com. That's where I do all my blogging and podcasting. And then my businesses are leadcookie.com for the done for you LinkedIn outreach. And last one is Content Allies where we turn consultants into thought leaders through content marketing.   Kyle Gray: Awesome. Jake, it's been such a pleasure having you on The Story Engine podcast. Thanks again for joining us.   Jake Jorgovan: Thanks for having me on here, Kyle.   Kyle Gray: Thanks for listening to the Story Engine Podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes and resources mentioned on this episode and every other episode at thestoryengine.co. If you're looking to learn more about how to use storytelling to grow your business, then check out my new book, Selling With Story: How to Use Storytelling to Become an Authority, Boost Sales, and Win the Hearts and Minds of Your Audience. This book will equip you with actionable strategies and templates to help you share your unique value and build trust in presentations, sales, and conversations, both online and offline. Learn more at sellingwithstory.co. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.

Alex McClafferty has a wealth of business experience to share with us this week. Not only did he build a successful business within the WordPress space – WP Curve – he ended up selling it to GoDaddy. That experience showed him that the number of resources for selling your business were scarce, and now he’s […] The post Alex McClafferty & Productize.co appeared first on How I Built It.

In 2013, Alex McClafferty co-founded WP Curve, when it was doing less than $500 per month in revenue. By 2015, Alex and his team had grown the business to a 7-figure run rate. In 2016, Alex ran the sell-side of their acquisition to GoDaddy. Finally, Alex left GoDaddy to pursue his passion as a CEO Coach in 2018.

  Alex McClafferty was the co-founder of WP Curve, an amazing resource on the team. He really helped me scale up what I was doing for my business. And taught me a lot of the foundational lessons I learned in managing great team members, creating amazing systems, and building a business that is scalable.  Alex continues to work with people these days in that respect and has a lot of great information on how to create a productized business, which he is going to share with you today. P.S. Alex is giving away his Consultant to CEO Program for free! More info at productize.co     What You Will Learn On This Episode Alex's Role as Co-Founder at WP Curve The Acquisition of WP Curve by Godaddy Setting Clear Roles and Responsibilities for Your Team The Process of Productization What Pushed Alex to Become a Coach and What He Offers to His Clients   Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode Video Husky  Lead Cookie PodSquad TaskDone HQ Productize   Transcription Kyle G.: Hello and welcome to The Story Engine Podcast. My name is Kyle Gray and today on this show we have Alex McClafferty. I am so excited to share Alex with you today because he is a friend of mine who I met in my early days in the startup marketing entrepreneurship world at WP Curve. Alex was the co-founder of WP Curve, an amazing resource on the team, and really helped me scale up what I was doing for that business and taught me a lot of the foundational lessons I learned in managing great team members, creating amazing systems, and building a business that is scalable. Alex continues to work with people these days in that respect and has a lot of great information on how to create a productized business, which he is going to share with you today. So without any further ado, let's turn it over to Alex.   Kyle G.: Alex McClafferty, welcome to The Story Engine Podcast. I am so excited to have you on here today.   Alex McClafferty: Hi. Thanks for having me man, and it's a pleasure to be aboard Kyle Gray's pirate ship.   Kyle G.: So, oh gosh, in case you haven't seen it, he's teasing me for my wooden background or our false wooden background as it may. Anyway, Alex, we have a history coming into the show. We've been friends for a long time now and I'm really excited to catch up on a lot of this, but first I want to introduce you properly and traditionally on the show with the first question that I always ask my guests is, tell me about a moment in your life that has defined who you are and what you do today.   Alex McClafferty: Wow, I feel like I should've prepared better for this interview. That's a really good question. A moment that's defined who I am and what I do today. Hmm. I'll jump into the company sale really quickly. So Kyle and I know each other from WP Curve. Kyle was our head of content, our content marketing extraordinaire back in those days. We started that company 2013, Kyle I think you joined at about 2014 or '15 something like that-   Kyle G.: Right at the end of '14.   Alex McClafferty: Yeah, and then we ended up being acquired by GoDaddy in 2016, at the end of 2016, and so the acquisition process for me was a real, I would say, a gauntlet, because I felt like I was going to make this deal happen as in it was on me and there was a lot riding on me. And so part of that was self-reliance, being able to say, "If there is an outcome that I want to kind of manifest or make happen and if I do the right thing and work really hard, I can be proud of my effort, but I can't necessarily control the outcome."   Alex McClafferty: So that was something that I really took away from selling that company, which was I didn't know what was happening on the GoDaddy side of the deal. All I had control over was how I showed up and the amount of effort that I put in and how I approached what I was doing. And that stood me in good stead since then, which is working really hard and hoping for the best, but accepting that sometimes things won't go the way that you want them to. I was fortunate enough to get the outcome that I was gunning for with the GoDaddy sale though.   Kyle G.: Well yeah, and congratulations on that because I remember it is really exciting to have you on the show and reflect about those times because I think WP Curve was a very defining time for both of us. And yeah, seeing that sale go through and seeing that whole process happen, at least from a somewhat distant perspective, it was really impressive to see how quickly the company grew and how you were able to not only get it sold but further scale it beyond there. I'd love to hear maybe a little bit before the sale of WP Curve and a lot of what you were doing behind the scenes then to scale it up and take it through its whole journey.   Alex McClafferty: Yeah. So I was definitely a behind the scenes guy. Co-founder Dan was much more, I would say, in the limelight and out there marketing his book and the other stuff that he was into. And I assumed the role of kind of, I don't know ... What was I? I was like operations, I was coaching, I was leading-   Kyle G.: Like COO, yeah.   Alex McClafferty: Yeah. I was all over the place and not really out in the public eye, but working very closely with the team to make sure that things were getting done. So one of the things that I took away from managing and leading people from a few years of experience, is that I like to build teams that are self managing at some levels. So I was looking for people that didn't necessarily have to have a ton of skill, they didn't have to be the most expert in their field, but I wanted them to be very driven and have a lot of will and have a lot of, I don't know, drive to be better and drive to improve.   Alex McClafferty: And so we ended up building this awesome team of WordPress developers who are all around the world, all have fun personalities, had a really, really good culture, which is sometimes hard to get in a remote team because you don't have that time for water cooler talk and then-   Kyle G.: Yeah, all over the world really, not even the same time zone. I was so impressed seeing all of the banter happening on the Slack channel. People were celebrating each other's birthdays. It was an incredible feat to really have the team together the way it was, and I think it was such a unique service to be able to deliver on that promise of having somebody awake and ready to go anywhere in the world to help you with WordPress issues.   Alex McClafferty: And not just awake and ready to go, but really motivated to do the work. That was the other thing. One of the team members was based in Africa, this guy would love to get on live chat and just talk to customers all day. That was his thing and we had different versions of that level of commitment and excitement for the work. And ultimately I think that was a big factor in why the company was attractive to a buyer like GoDaddy and why we were able to take it and then scale it because we had that culture.   Alex McClafferty: So a lot of my work, I think in the early days, was around building the team, making sure that people were looked after, making sure that people had the opportunity to provide feedback or had an outlet or had the support that they need. And then you and I had many a conversation about here's a challenge, how are we going to overcome this? What's the next step? And I think I remember jamming with you on one particular thing, which is like the guest posting process or something like that.    Kyle G.: Oh my gosh, yeah, that was the turning point for me. I do remember this conversation because at the time I was just like, "Working with guest writers is like herding cats. I just need to become a better writer because I can do this faster than them on my own." And you were like, "No, that's not how it needs to be." And this was truly when things started to change. And then, yeah, we started honing in on the process of how do we set good expectations and how do we eliminate any kind of questions, any kind of issues, before they even arise and within that moment, in that turning point and when we started to change and create a proper style guide, which is the foundation for the style guide and the strategy templates I'm using or I have in the story engine right now, but that was the moment.   Kyle G.: That's when I was able to go, I remember beforehand I was struggling to produce two our three great articles a month and then all of a sudden we were hitting 10 consistently every month just from that change. So, incredibly powerful stuff.   Alex McClafferty: Yeah, that was fun. I remember giving you feedback because we would refine and then I'd have comments or I'd have points of view and I'd read through it as if I was a writer trying to get the points and make sure it was super clear. And again, these are the things that happen in the background of a business, which is not necessarily the most glamorous work. It's not, you know, front line where you're out with the shining lights or anything, but it's necessary because that's what scales, those are the things that really scale.   Alex McClafferty: And we had a few of those different kinds of projects within WP Curve that happened and they were executed and I think that kind of mentality, just getting in and getting the work done, kind of pulled things through and permeated the team as well, which was a big focus on process and quality and figuring out ways to improve what was existing, which again going into a company like GoDaddy, they had existing processes, they had existing structures, and we were like, "Those are cool, but is that the best way to do it?" And that creates some challenges and some ripples and whatnot, but that's part of the fun of being the new company on the block and trying to shake things up. So we took that to the big leagues.   Kyle G.: And I think one of the things that really caught people's attention with WP Curve was this productization and this process. And this is something that you've continued to hone and refine and master and you are now working with many different people to help them build their own productized services. I'd love to hear just a little bit about what does a productized service mean to you these days and what are some of the key components of that?   Alex McClafferty: Yeah. Well see, the funny thing about this is a productized service is going to be different for each founder. I go inside out as far as what the business can be, so a productized service to me could be a scalable coaching program because I'm in the business of coaching and at some point I just tapped out of like three or four hours of calls a day. So I need to figure out a way to serve more people but do it in a consistent manner and even hopefully better than what I can do one on one. So with the productized services that I see coming through, there's a lot of folks that are inspired by the WP Curve model and they'll take that into different verticals, whether that's live chat or lead generation or video editing or supporting another platform.   Alex McClafferty: But the principles are the same, which are as a founder, you have a business that can run without you. You can literally step back from the business and observe what's going on. You've got a team that has absolute clear definition of what their roles and responsibilities are. You've got kind of like a paint by numbers financial model as far as understanding, okay, at $50,000 a month in revenue, we know the profit margin is going to be this, we know we can reinvest this amount for growth, and this is what the value of the business is going to be.   Alex McClafferty: So I like having structure and process around these businesses because when you have that, then you can kind of sit back and go, "Okay, what else do I want to spend time on? What else do I want to do?" Which is what I did with WP Curve. In 2015 I kind of stepped back a little bit from that business and went out and did some consulting with SaaS companies in San Francisco, which was awesome because there was so much cool stuff happening and still is today, and got to meet a bunch of founders of really big and successful companies and learn from those folks and then go back and apply that to my business or others' consulting clients and really free up that time.   Alex McClafferty: So yeah, to summarize all of that, productized service to me is a business in which you can scale, step away from, it has a terminal value so there's an asset that you're building rather than just cashflow from a consulting offering, and it's run by a team, a team of people that do the work that you could probably do yourself, but it's going to be done a whole lot better through a team.   Kyle G.: Absolutely. And when coming onto a productized service, this is something that's very attractive and a lot of people are going for these kinds of things. But I don't think, unless you are very intentionally building a service like this, or you are intentionally trying to create these systems, it very rarely just kind of happens on its own. And I'm wondering what are some of the first questions that you would ask somebody you work with or some of the first places that you would start to look for opportunities for productization? Because I also think it falls on a spectrum. It's not something that you can just be one day not productized and then one day fully productized. I think it's a process in kind of the other meaning of the word and kind of evolving into that.   Alex McClafferty: Yeah. So the first question I actually ask founders is why they're building what they're building. So I use this framework, which is assuming that you're going to be successful building this or any other business, why are you choosing this one? And what I'm looking for is some conviction because you can go and flip burgers at McDonald's, you can go and flip a sign on a crosswalk, whenever you want to do, but your heart needs to be in it. And this was a mistake that I made with WP Curve because I was never truly passionate about WordPress or even WordPress support. But [bctt tweet="If you are genuinely interested in the space that you are stepping into, going through the ups and downs, going through the highs and lows of the business is so, so much easier. - Alex McClafferty" username="kylethegray"] If it's something that's kind of boring and you're not super interested in, then that's going to be reflected in how the business grows.   Alex McClafferty: So I look for some conviction up front and then I start to take people through different frameworks to understand, okay, let's say you're a consultant and you want to productize your service. Typically one of the challenges that consultants have is that they're an expert in their field, but they have a hard time distilling that knowledge to be able to pass it on for someone else to execute on their behalf. So you start to look around within the consulting offering as to what is something that a client needs on a repeating basis, there's some recurring revenue that can be generated from your offering. And so that's going to vary from consultant to consultant, but consultants will often get in their own way because they're very good at what they do and they have a hard time letting go of the reins.   Alex McClafferty: So then you start to ask the questions of, "Okay, well if you don't let go of the reigns now, at what point will you be able to, and at what point will you be able to bring in a team to do it? Because if you can't let go of a little thing, then how are you going to let this business run by itself?" So as you can see, a lot of that comes back to mindset and looking at what you want in the future versus where you're at today. And then other things that come to mind are like what's the end game for this business, which is again, something that in the WP Curve days we didn't get clear on until a year or so in. We started building this thing where this is really cool, we know that it solves a big problem, but what's our exit opportunity? What's the scenario for, you know, if we want to sell to a hosting company or if we want to sell to someone on market or if one of us wants to buy each other out.   Alex McClafferty: We didn't have any of that clarity, so I advise people to start with the end in mind when they're building out a productized service and then kind of paint or color in the lines as they go backwards, which is easier said than done because I've seen it done and helped a lot of people do it now, but when you're starting out it's like, "Okay, what's the first thing that I put a process around? I don't know, like ..." and then you just kind of get confused.   Kyle G.: One of the things you're doing now, you're working in coaching and helping other people do this, but you're still working on walking the walk in your own coaching business and in productization. We were talking just the other week and you mentioned pretty much all of the services that you work with to grow your business are all productized services. I'd like to know as a coaching business and growing your coaching business, what have been some of the most useful productized services that you've been using that have helped you grow and expand your reach and your message?   Alex McClafferty: Yeah, there's some that I'm actively using and then there's some that I'm going to bring into the fold. So one of my clients, his name is Justin, he runs a productized service called Video Husky and they're basically the WP Curve for video editing. So I think his price point is around 500 bucks a month. And you send these guys raw files with a template of what you want it to look like, maybe some inspiration as far as style goes, and they'll chop that up for you and send it back to you and you'll be able to go back and forward. So I've used those guys to help with video content.   Alex McClafferty: There's other productized services out there for podcasts, so that's something that I'm looking into right now. I use Lead Cookie, which is Jake Jorgovan's business, just to set up connections on LinkedIn and post content, which is something that I know I should do but I probably wouldn't do, and it's helpful to stay top of mind with people. And who else have I used lately? I'm just trying to think. I also have a service for podcast booking, so there's a service, I think it's called Podcast Introductions, something like that. They reached out to me after I was on Jake's podcast and said, "Hey, do you want more bookings or do you want to get on more podcasts like Jake's?" And I'm like, "Of course, I'm not going to go out and pitch myself to other podcasts. If you can line this stuff up for me and get it on my calendar, I'm happy to pay."   Alex McClafferty: So those little things. There are often things that you know you need to do and they add up in the long run, but probably someone like me, I don't prioritize them and then I'm missing out on potential intros or potential clients or just building some awareness or some brand.   Kyle G.: That can be really powerful things to have these services working for you and one of the beautiful things about it. Before productized services and software, you probably had a team of a dozen people or more all working for you. You now have a growing and thriving business that is able to have all of these people applying their expertise in exactly the way you need it and just the exact dosage that you need. Because it wouldn't be worthwhile to have a full time podcast outreach person on your team. And I think that's one of the beauties of services like this and why it's so useful for entrepreneurs and why there's such an opportunity to create services like this because there's so many different needs that a business has these days that usually one person can't fill every single one of these needs. But just by placing these in and perfectly applying them in those amazing places, it really helps you grow and scale.   Alex McClafferty: Yeah. Yeah. I've found it really helpful and I probably save 10 hours a week, 15 hours a week, something like that, from implementing those couple. And then there's more that I can use that are at my disposal because they come to me and they'll say, "Hey I need help with this or I need help with that," and I'm like, "Cool, that's an interesting service, I could use that," and it helps me extend my footprint because I don't have any direct team members right now, I'm just like a one man band, which is challenging but it's also fun to know that I've got a team of people that I can rely on to get things done that I'm either not interested in or not good at. Those are the two gaps that they sell for me.   Kyle G.: And within your own coaching business and in the case of kind of applying these ideas to how you're working with people, you mentioned after three or four calls, one on one calls in a day, you're pretty tapped out. I've experienced that for sure and I think a lot of people listening in have felt that as well. What are some of the things that you have done to start to scale up and productize your business or what's your strategy moving forward to be able to expand and scale up while still maintaining the quality of what you're doing?   Alex McClafferty: Yeah, I use constraints so I say that I don't want to be on the phone for any more than 10 hours a week so I don't want any more than 10 hours of contact time. And by creating that constraint then I have to get creative with how I fill out that time. So up until this point, it might be eight or so hours of one on one time with clients each week and then a couple of hours of group coaching. But what I found is with the group coaching, it's a lot more scalable and it's also at some level a lot more useful because when you've got a group of people that are working in the same direction, then you've got this cross pollination of ideas and different viewpoints and actually takes a little bit of pressure off me to be the one coming up with all of the ideas and all of the suggestions all of the time.   Alex McClafferty: So I'm still a coach but I'm also a facilitator. In my current group I've got I think six people in there, building out their own productized service, and I get to draw insights and ideas and things out of that group without having to be the linchpin for all of them. And then I'll have my point of view. But that's fun, to me that's fun, and I can also do that in such a way where when I have a program like that instead of having your typical membership site that's got, I don't know, like static content and then you download some PDFs and do the work. What I do is I set everybody up with a Google Doc and each week I drop content into the Google Doc. Once they've uploaded their exercises, done the activities.   Alex McClafferty: So if I'm traveling or if I get up early or something like that, I'll jump into each person's Google Doc and I'll be able to give them feedback, which is really, really useful to them, but not something that I could necessarily fit into a typical daily schedule. So that gives me, again, it's like leverage, but it's also leveraged in a way that's useful to the person that is paying for the program. Because one of my experiences with group coaching is sometimes it feels like you get this kind of fractured or fragmented amount of time from the person that's coaching. And what I'm trying to figure out is ways to get even closer to the work, but deliver it in such a way where it's not relying on me being on the phone. Like I can be lying on my couch on my laptop, going through these things and adding comments and inputs and insights that you may not be able to do in other coaching formats or programs.   Kyle G.: I'd love to get a peek inside of the group you're working with. I'd love to hear, if possible, examples of businesses but we can also keep them anonymous too. Some of the big leaps forward, or as soon as somebody managed this process, hired this person, outsourced this thing, that they really experienced a big leap forward. What are some of the big wins that you've seen in the people that you've been working with?   Alex McClafferty: So the challenge with actually building a productized service to me is the slow burn, and part of what I'm dealing with the group that I've got, I've got a group of very successful consultants, people that have been in business for a couple of years for themselves and they're like, "Okay, I need to figure out a way to scale what I'm doing. Now what is the thing that I can scale?"   Alex McClafferty: And so example services that we've got popping up, we've got another podcast outreach, but a much higher end offering and that's by a lady named Bridget, that business is called PodSquad, which I think is just the best, I love that name. It's awesome. It's brilliant. We've got Jake, Jake Jorgovan back in the mix and he's doing work on Content Allies and what he's trying to deliver is thought leadership as a service, so especially at that consultant level, creating prompts for people that are very good at what they do to be able to have continuous content, email, newsletters, LinkedIn, all of the stuff that you know you should do, but you probably don't, and it's something that if you have a team of people working on it for you, it just takes that pressure off.   Alex McClafferty: Then we've got some more specialized kind of narrow focuses. So things like aftercare for very technical products, very technical platforms, with more of an engineering focus. And then there's a couple other cool ideas like accountability as a service, so you know how you get a VA and then you hire them and you're like, "Okay, what do I do with this VA?" What one of these services will do, which is called, I think it's TaskDone HQ, that business will be partly doing tasks for you but also partly keeping you on task and saying, "Hey, these are the things you told us that you needed done. We're going to help you get those done. What else do you need from us?" And be like a friendly nudge forward to get those things off your to do list. So because of the phase of where these folks are at, is they already have established existing, successful businesses and they are looking to move into productizing their service.   Alex McClafferty: And so they're not necessarily at the place where they're making big decisions and big hiring moves, but they've got positioning nailed, they've got their value proposition nailed, they've got a sales page, they've got an outreach, whether it's cold or warm, they'll have marketing plans, and they'll have a roadmap to scale. So they walk away with all of that and then it's on them to execute and move forward. And the thing that I'm looking at is how do I support those people in an ongoing way, which is probably more of the same kind of group support, group coaching, and allowing them to kind of cross pollinate those ideas and help each other out too.   Kyle G.: That is really cool and all of those sound like very valuable services. All kinds of ideas are sparking on how I could use all of those things in my own life. I want to change gears a little bit and go back to a little bit of your story. You mentioned that while you were working with WP Curve, it was very much behind the scenes, team oriented, not so much marketing, and now as a high end coach working with very high profile, very intelligent entrepreneurs, you've had to move yourself more into the spotlight coming onto podcasts, sharing your story and who you are.   Kyle G.: Can you tell me a little bit about your evolution from kind of going behind the scenes to becoming an authority in your own right? Because I think this is a really challenging transformation that many people, both introverted, extroverted, anybody who is trying to grow their business these days, share their story more, is often going to have a little bit of trouble. Oftentimes our genius seems so commonplace that we discount who we are. We don't feel like it's that interesting. Tell me about this journey that you've gone through and how you've evolved and changed over these years from WP Curve to now.   Alex McClafferty: So it was actually born out of frustration with other coaches that were in market. And I would see these things online and I would just get really upset because I felt like people were being taken advantage of. So, you know, eight figure this and nine figure that and blah blah blah, and most people are starting out in this place where they're like, "Okay, I'm good at what I do, how can I make that into a scalable business?" So this idea of marketing really aggressively with private jets and all the guru kind of stuff, it just left a really bad taste in my mouth. And so I was working with Jake who's a longtime client and also friend, and I was kind of bitching to him about it and I was like, "This is just not cool man." And he's like, "Yeah, you keep talking about that, so you can either continue to complain to me about it or you can go out and market yourself and make a difference, right? You can do it yourself and make a difference."   Alex McClafferty: The way that he explained it to me and the way that he kind of put it back on me was awesome because as much as I am a coach, my clients also coach me. And so when he says that to me, I'm like, "You really got a point. I can sit around and look at what everyone else is doing and criticize it or I can try and show up and do what I do and help people." And that's what I do.   Alex McClafferty: So I had to figure out what my positioning and what my message is and that's just me being me, which is being honest, sharing my story, trying to help people, and not bullshitting because I just don't have it in me. I can't fabricate, "Oh I was so great and this is so wonderful," and everything else because the reality of building any business or even as you would see in the early WP Curve days, you can look from the outside in and go, "Wow, those guys have really got it figured out or that's super easy," but every founder that I talk to, there's a reason that they're hiring a coach and it's because it is hard.   Alex McClafferty: It's really stressful, it's really difficult, and I've helped a couple of founders go through really significant acquisitions where the company's being acquired by either a really big company or they've got a really big payout and that is extremely stressful. So I talk to that. I talk to the stress that comes along with, you know, you think you get a big payday and then everything gets easier. For me it got harder. It actually got harder because I had more pressure on me to make sure things were successful at GoDaddy because I didn't want it to be a flame out or just something that got bought and shuttered.   Alex McClafferty: And so I'm very authentic and transparent with all of that. And that being, like speaking the truth, has really helps me to get out of my own head and not criticize or judge myself and just say, "Look, I've got this point of view, this is my experience. Your experience might be different, your point of view might be different, and we're both entitled to our own." So that has helped. That's helped a lot. But I really have to thank Jake for that because he definitely got stuck into me a couple of times and was like, "Dude, [bctt tweet="Get out there and start talking about what you know and start adding value to people - Alex McClafferty" username="kylethegray"] and stop complaining about these guys that are doing this guru marketing nonsense."   Kyle G.: That's beautiful. And I think we could all do with a few less Facebook ads with gold plated helicopters and things like that.   Alex McClafferty: Well I'm actually, so this is funny man, I'm going to be shooting some video stuff for the next release of my program and we came up with all sorts of random concepts. So one of them was like me shoveling horse poo into a bin. Another one was I think I've got a push mower for the lawn at this rental that I'm living at right now and we were going to cut to me, like pan to me on the lawn mower that doesn't have a motor.   Kyle G.: Yeah, those old circle cylinder ones that, yeah, okay. Those are getting really popular in my neighborhood I've noticed recently.   Alex McClafferty: Maybe it's a hipster thing, I'm not sure, but-   Kyle G.: It could be.   Alex McClafferty: But the point is, if you believe and you buy into the hype of a private jet or a gold plated helicopter, then you're probably not going to be a good fit for me anyway because that's like a get rich quick kind of thing. The reality of business is it's hard work, it's a grind, you'll get good rewards, but you've got to put your back into it, and that's what we'll be shooting video around to say, "Hey, you'll get to success, but it's not going to be all glamor and all show."   Kyle G.: I don't think most of us, at least most of the people listening, maybe some of us do want helicopters, but I think what a lot of us aspire to is just a business that supports our life and our lifestyle and allows us to make an impact and show up in a way that we enjoy working every day and also have plenty of room for all of the wonderful things that life has to offer us outside of working really hard.   Alex McClafferty: Yeah, and I'm a huge proponent of that. One of the biggest things to me in the WP Curve days was to be able to take off and hike Machu Picchu and step away from the business for four days and know that everything was going to be okay and it was probably going to be in better shape when I got back then when I left. So to me, those are the little things and I've got a lot of friends who are in San Francisco, building really big businesses or raising a ton of money, and I don't have any argument with that. If that's what you're interested in, that's cool, but you can also be happy with the business that does six or seven figures a year, spins you off a good salary, creates a great cushion for your family or your financial goals. There's really no right or wrong, but I like to work with people that are clear on what they're building and why they want to build it.   Kyle G.: Alex, it's been so much fun talking and catching up with you again and it's so cool to hear the impact you're making in many different places and with many of your clients who we've gotten to hear a little bit about today. I'd love to hear if you have any closing thoughts for us and then where can we go to learn more about you and the brilliant productization you do?   Alex McClafferty: Yeah. Well, I'll start with this second question first, which is where to find me. So productize.co. That's P-R-O-D-U-C-T-I-Z-E dot co. I've got a website and it's funny, I had a WordPress support business, it's an okay website, it's not the fanciest website, but it kind of speaks to my idea of do what is necessary, not what is flashy. And that's probably my parting thought, which is we can get carried away with a lot of bells and whistles and things that we don't need, but I think keeping things really simple, getting to the essence, and getting to understand exactly what your customer needs will drive your business much farther forward than tactics or hacks or any other sort of nonsense that you might distract yourself with.   Alex McClafferty: And those are the things that I try and help people with, which is to keep it super simple, get really clear, and keep them motivated and driving forward. So yeah, keep it simple, that's probably my parting thought for the audience.   Kyle G.: I love it. Alex, thank you so much for joining us today.   Alex McClafferty: Thanks for having me.   Kyle Gray: Thanks for listening to the Story Engine Podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes and resources mentioned on this episode and every other episode at thestoryengine.co. If you're looking to learn more about how to use storytelling to grow your business, then check out my new book, Selling With Story: How to Use Storytelling to Become an Authority, Boost Sales, and Win the Hearts and Minds of Your Audience. This book will equip you with actionable strategies and templates to help you share your unique value and build trust in presentations, sales, and conversations, both online and offline. Learn more at sellingwithstory.co. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.

Alex is the CEO coach at Productize.co, a firm which helps founders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs scale their internet companies. Before founding Productize.co, Alex co-founded WP Curve. He helped to bootstrap the company from $500 in monthly revenue to a 7 figure annual run rate. In 2016, he ran the sell-side of his company acquisition to GoDaddy. Post-acquisition, he successfully integrated the team, relaunched the product and grew the business by orders of magnitude. His clients include: * Founders of productized service companies who want to build a scalable and saleable service business * Entrepreneurs who need a sounding board to help them make decisions to grow their company * SaaS CEOs who are planning to sell their company to either a financial or strategic buyer

Alex McClafferty coaches founders of SaaS & productized service companies. In 2013, he co-founded WP Curve, a 24/7 WordPress support service. In 2016, WP Curve was acquired by GoDaddy, with Alex staying on to grow the business until 2018. Alex fell into coaching entrepreneurs while he was on the GoDaddy team. He found that the more he helped others, the more doors have opened for him.

In today's episode, we're talking to Alex McClafferty, a full-time coach for founders of SaaS & productized service companies.

Does acquisition solve all of the problems that are in front of you? Alex McClafferty gives a brutally honest answer.

To get started absolutely for free, go to Combin Back in 2013 Alex McClafferty was searching for an idea –– a project he could dive headfirst into and turn it into a business. Then from California, he came across Dan Norris working away in Australia on a newly created service called WP Live Ninja. Alex loved the idea, and saw that Dan had $478/month in revenue and was struggling to acquire customers. So he reached out to Dan to see if he wanted to partner up -- and from this conversation WP Curve was born. Alex and Dan ran with the idea and In 2013 and by 2015, they’d built a remote team around the world and grown revenue to $1MM annual recurring revenue. Then in December 2016, GoDaddy acquired WP Curve and Alex joined GoDaddy as the Director of Product Management, where he stayed until October of 2018. Today, Alex has joined the ranks of the digitally nomadic as he travels the world with no set schedule or destination. While at the same time, he has started a private consulting company for CEOs looking to scale their productized companies the same way he did with WP Curve. Now, let's hack... Alex McClafferty.

Today, I'm talking with Alex McClafferty, co-founder of WP Curve. Alex joined WP Curve at the very beginning in 2013 when they were doing $5000 ARR. By 2015, that number had grown to $1mm ARR and in 2016 GoDaddy acquired the business. Drawing on his experience building, selling, and integrating a company, Alex is now helping other CEOs scale their business and get it ready for an acquisition through his work at Productize.co. WP Curve was one of the OGs in the content marketing game and I followed their story, and Alex's as well, over the years. When I had a friend on the show, Jake Jorgovan, he raved about working with Alex and I knew I had to get him on the show to learn more about his life post-acquisition. In our chat, we're going to dive into how Alex put together the deal to sell WP Curve, what the experience was like spending two years inside GoDaddy integrating and growing the business after the acquisition, and how he uses these lessons to help other startup CEOs. Just as a quick heads up, we ran into a few technical issues and had to do the interview over the phone so the sound quality isn't perfect but I think the content more than makes up for it. It's a bit of a cliche to say somebody held nothing back, but Alex lived up to that standard in this personal and insightful chat.

On this episode I sit down with my coach and mentor Alex McClafferty. Alex is one of the co-founders of WPCurve, a monthly recurring subscription and productized service focused on supporting Wordpress sites for a small monthly fee. WPCurve is an awesome service that Alex and his co-founder grew and sold to GoDaddy.   While his startup success has become legend in this space, Alex has a lot to share when it comes to the unpretty parts of the whole journey. From starting off small, to growing, to the emotional turmoil of selling, to what it's like to going through the process of being bought by a huge company.   Don't miss this episode to learn from Alex' acquisition journey and for tips on leadership and building strong teams to launch a successful productized service with.

Alex McClafferty moved to the U.S. to join WP Curve in 2013. He poured his heart and soul into the company and grew the company to incredible heights. Slowly Alex and his business partner went their separate ways and GoDaddy came a-courting. Alex describes what it was like to sit down with one of the biggest companies in the internet space. He also goes into how he approached such a big deal and when it was time for him to move on. Alex left a lot of money on the table when he left GoDaddy. He explains why he left and what he would say to other people in a similar situation. What you will learn: Alex’s early career and move to the U.S. How Dan and Alex built WP Curve. When to dissolve a partnership. Alex’s advice for people having partner issues. How Alex prepared for his meetings with GoDaddy. The importance of building a great M&A team. How Alex worked with GoDaddy to make the deal go smoother. The ups and downs of M&A. Why Alex exited GoDaddy before his earn-out was completed. The 2 questions you should ask yourself before changing jobs. Alex’s final thoughts. Takeaways: Alex took a lot of risk with his deal with GoDaddy. If you do your homework and prepare for the meetings you will walk away with a better deal and relationship. If you ever decide to walk away from a business deal, make sure you really consider what you are doing and why you are doing it. Links and Resources: GEXP Collaborative Productize.co Alex’s email About Alex: Alex McClafferty coaches founders of SaaS & productized service companies. In 2013, he joined WP Curve when the company was doing $478 in monthly revenue. By 2015, the company built a remote team around the world and grew revenue to $1MM ARR. In December 2016, GoDaddy acquired WP Curve. With the help of a rockstar team at GoDaddy, the WP Curve team, rebuilt and then relaunched the product as WP Premium Support. Alex left GoDaddy in 2018 to pursue business coaching full-time.

Alex McClafferty moved to the U.S. to join WP Curve in 2013. He poured his heart and soul into the company and grew the company to incredible heights. Slowly Alex and his business partner went their separate ways and GoDaddy came a-courting. Alex describes what it was like to sit down with one of the biggest companies in the internet space. He also goes into how he approached such a big deal and when it was time for him to move on. Alex left a lot of money on the table when he left GoDaddy. He explains why he left and what he would say to other people in a similar situation. What you will learn: Alex’s early career and move to the U.S. How Dan and Alex built WP Curve. When to dissolve a partnership. Alex’s advice for people having partner issues. How Alex prepared for his meetings with GoDaddy. The importance of building a great M&A team. How Alex worked with GoDaddy to make the deal go smoother. The ups and downs of M&A. Why Alex exited GoDaddy before his earn-out was completed. The 2 questions you should ask yourself before changing jobs. Alex’s final thoughts. Takeaways: Alex took a lot of risk with his deal with GoDaddy. If you do your homework and prepare for the meetings you will walk away with a better deal and relationship. If you ever decide to walk away from a business deal, make sure you really consider what you are doing and why you are doing it. Links and Resources: GEXP Collaborative Productize.co Alex’s email About Alex: Alex McClafferty coaches founders of SaaS & productized service companies. In 2013, he joined WP Curve when the company was doing $478 in monthly revenue. By 2015, the company built a remote team around the world and grew revenue to $1MM ARR. In December 2016, GoDaddy acquired WP Curve. With the help of a rockstar team at GoDaddy, the WP Curve team, rebuilt and then relaunched the product as WP Premium Support. Alex left GoDaddy in 2018 to pursue business coaching full-time.

In this episode, Bill and Sarah take the audience to the Customer Success industry's premier conference, Gainsight Pulse Conference 2016. Guests interviewed include MindTouch CEO Aaron Fulkerson, Cloudera VP Customer Success Sarah Sproehnle, WalkMe VP Customer Engagement Emilia D'Anzica, and Glide Consulting founders Nils Vinje and Alex McClafferty. Hear insiders' perspectives on the future of customer success and helping customers love your software. Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Interview with Alex McClafferty and Dan Norris http://www.wpcurve.com They generate customers solely through content marketing and will put out 365 pieces of content this year. Within 6 months they went from $476 to a recurring revenue of $10,500 month. 1:47 How they went from $476/mo in revenue to $10,500/mo of recurring revenue in 6 months 3:12 Why they are focusing on content marketing to grow their business 4:37 What they do to build trust with their customers 5:48 When they started out they focused on the wrong customer only making $49 in 4 months. Alex explains how they pivoted to the right customer. 7:27 How they prepare content for their marketing and achieve the goal of 365 pieces of content in 2014 Their current content formula: 1-2 Podcast interview a week 2-3 Blog articles a week 1 Guest post a week 1 Weekly podcast on http://www.startupchat.co 11:53 What they do to manage their projects, tasks, and content 13:07 Balancing the working “on” the business and not “in” the business 15:52 Avoiding a high churn rate is critical for a recurring revenue business… they explain what they do to keep customers long term 20:39 Key focus areas when starting a new business 22:02 Execution is key and why they’ve started a new business within 7 days 23:39 The only validation indicator that matters 24:41 Why are early entrepreneurs and startups scared to put something out there for sale? 28:35 How being in San Francisco effect their startup. 30:35 Talking about the orchestration of their team 33:10 What’s the next step for www.wpcurve.com 36:25 How granular they get with their goals? 39:02 Parting advice to entrepreneurs looking to grow their business 40:10 Their angel investor elevator pitch 41:57 Who their product is for 43:35 Say thanks to Dan and Alex at www.wpcurve.com and on their podcast http://www.startupchat.co

Alex is the Co founder of WP Curve and Content Club. He spent over 100k dollars on his formal education, which distracted him from doing what he really wanted to - become an entrepreneur. In early July, Alex followed his dream and has not looked back since. Below are two free resources to IGNITE your Entrepreneurial journey!FreePodcastCourse.com: A free 15-day course that will teach you how to create, grow, and monetize YOUR Podcast!TheWebinarCourse.com: A free 10-day course that will teach you how to create and present Webinars that convert!

In today’s episode we chat with the founders of WP Curve, Dan Norris and Alex McClafferty. We get to hear the origins of that service, some of the challenges Dan had along the way, and how their both leveraging their individual skill sets to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Show Highlights 05:25 - The story of Dan and Alex 08:55 - Finally meeting in person 10:10 - Content planning 11:45 - What Alex likes to write 13:00 - Reaching the 200 customer mark and the re-focus on WP Curve 14:25 - The benefits of income reports 15:10 - Importance of downloads 19:20 - How live-casting keeps you on your toes 21:20 - Benefits of a structured interview 25:00 - Working on the upcoming book 27:50 - Lessons from the Agency Talk podcast and why Dan retired it 28:45 - Why Dan & Alex are fans of their show format 40:50 - What keeps Alex up at night 41:35 - Goal setting 42:30 - Their unique selling proposition 43:40 - The focus of the podcast 48:00 - The message behind everything they do 49:55 - Why different skill sets are important FULL SHOW NOTES: http://www.podcastjunkies.com/2★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

  In Episode #18 of the WP Elevation podcast I had a great time talking with fellow Australian WordPress entrepreneur Dan Norris from WP Curve. Dan has built a service as a service company offering WordPress maintenance and support services as a monthly subscription product. He also runs a podcast called Startup Chat and is quite transparent with his efforts, successes and failures as a start-up entrepreneur. I played poker with his business partner Alex McClafferty late last year when I was in San Francisco and this is how I came to know Dan. The post Episode #18 – Dan Norris appeared first on WP Elevation.

Alex is the Co-founder of WP Curve and Content Club. He spent over $100k on his formal education, which distracted him from doing what he really wanted to - become an entrepreneur. In early July, Alex followed his dream and hasn’t looked back since.