Some of you might be new to Agency Mavericks and wonder “who is this guy dishing out all this advice?”. Or some of you might not even know that Troy, in fact, has “walked the walk” and discovered all of his winning business methods and processes himself.
Here's his story and how he came to help thousands of digital agency owners change not just their businesses but their lives too.
The Humble Beginning
Troy is a proud university drop out who found himself unemployed and living in a mouldy flat on his own at the age of 26. By complete chance, he ended up doing voiceovers for commercials on television and radio and started to build websites for his own projects. This lead to eventually building websites for paying clients using WordPress.
But he felt like a broken record having to teach his clients how to use their own site at the handover stage. Then the constant questions would come.
And So, A Product Was Born
To scratch his own itch, Troy decided to compile a 100-page document with over 80 screenshots explaining how to use WordPress to manage the content on a website. He deliberately kept all the instructions and screenshots as generic as possible so that he could reuse this document for future clients.
A friend (who became Troy's business partner, Brian) had the idea to turn this documentation into a plugin. Troy did the voice-over and Brian built the product. And so, Video User Manuals was born!
In order to get sales of this product, Troy and Brian launched a free plugin called White Label CMS which complimented Video User Manuals perfectly. So when someone would download White Label CMS, they would see the advertisement for VUM and the sales took off!
That's right folks… this is how Troy started his first recurring revenue!
Building an Audience
They then placed a signup form for three free e-books to help users build a better business as WordPress consultants on the settings page of Video User Manuals. That was a huge generator of leads for them. It allowed them to build a modest email list of around 9,000 in three years with no advertising.
Building a WordPress Agency
The Video User Manuals plugin was generating recurring revenue while he was also running his web design agency. He teamed up with a partner and experimented, built processes, hired staff (locally and offshore) and pretty much started running a well-oiled machine that was winning big clients.
Troy had finally “cracked the code” of how to get high paying, easy-to-work-with clients. He had implemented foolproof systems within his agency… but he wasn't fulfilled and wanted another challenge.
Troy still had the plugin business running in the background but didn't have time to dedicate to growing it but he was convinced that with a little more focused effort, the plug-in could probably support them full time.
He was terrified of losing revenue from building websites for clients, but he also knew that if he didn’t focus on one business or the other, he would probably screw both of them up.
So… he jumped in with two feet to work with Brian on their digital business.
The Move to Coaching
Troy got some speaking gigs which helped him get known within the digital space. And this led to getting clients for consulting. He spoke at WordCamp Melbourne in 2013 and delivered a presentation called “101 Ways to Elevate Yourself and Demand Higher Fees”. It went so well that he made this presentation into a video which went viral and became his flagship content.
He was then invited to speak at WordCamps and summits across the globe and started getting known as an authority in the WordPress space.
Getting to Know Their Audience
Troy and Brian had their email list of around 9,000 people, so they decided to test their audience to see if they were ready to buy business coaching from Troy. They advertised a webinar in which Troy would teach all he knew about running a WordPress agency. He said he would've been happy if they had 30 sales.
They sold over 80 tickets and made $11,500 in 48 hours! And the webinar was a hit.
Troy surveyed all the participants to find out what else they wanted to know about and what other struggles they were facing. From there he created the Business Accelerator Program which ran for four days only. 55 people joined at $97 per month.
Building Trust and Authority
In order to build trust and authority, Troy started speaking at WordCamps and became well known in the industry.
He also started the Agency Mavericks podcast. This attracted more people to the website, more people downloading the lead magnet and therefore more people were added to the mailing list. We've seen amazing guests like Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin and Kate Toon. (to name just a few!).
The Birth of Agency Mavericks Blueprint
This first program was launched in 2013 and in 2015, Troy created what we know and love today – the Blueprint. Since we opened its doors, we have helped thousands of WordPress consultants change not just their business, but their lives too.
Troy has expanded Agency Mavericks to collaborate with some amazing people such as Dana Malstaff and offer more courses. He has also started a coaching program – the Mavericks Club.
Troy now has a team of 12 who have helped over 4,000 agency owners scale — some of them to well over 7-figures — by working less, making more, and having more fun. Troy says that this is what motivates him to get out of bed every day:
Want to Know What's Next?
Join over 8.3k digital agency owners in the Digital Maverick's Facebook Group to stay up to date with some exciting coaching programs coming up!
