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Jan 24, 2019 · 19m · top-founders

1279 He Does $6m in Event Revenue Annually, now SaaS

Dale Beaumont · 12m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

Entrepreneur Dale Beaumont explains how he leverages $6 million in annual revenue from his live coaching business, Business Blueprint, to bootstrap Bizversity, a mobile-first business training SaaS platform.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 28.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.8 Guest teaching 3.8 Guest disagreement 1.7 Nathan pushing back 4.3
05100:0010:001:14–4:26 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Introducing Technology Entrepreneur Dale Beaumont Nathan introduces Dale and establishes the baseline business metrics for Bizversity. Dale explains his transition from running live events to launching a mobile-first video learning subscription app.4:26–7:26 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Transition from Free Platform to Paid SaaS Nathan presses Dale on high churn rates inherent to content membership sites. He demonstrates industry familiarity by comparing Bizversity's strategy to the pricing and discounting struggles of Udemy and CreativeLive.7:27–10:00 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Enterprise Franchise Expansion and Frictionless Learning Nathan pushes back on Dale's B2B franchise strategy, questioning why a corporate franchise wouldn't just create their own training or use YouTube. Dale defends his product by detailing frictionless user experience features like audio CarPlay switching.10:00–13:55 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Scaling Business Blueprint to $6 Million in Event Revenue Nathan analyzes the economics of Dale's $6 million coaching business before challenging Dale's claim of 16 bestselling books by pointing out low Amazon sales ranks and missing reviews. Dale clarifies that sales occurred through physical Australian bookshops a decade earlier.13:56–17:31 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Self-Publishing Economics and Live Event Book Sales Nathan brings up his own experience negotiating with major publishers, allowing Dale to thoroughly educate him on independent book distribution, retail markups, and author-copy unit economics at live events. Dale rebuts Nathan's suggestion to simply direct stage audiences to Amazon.17:31–18:48 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan executes his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions in a cordial and conversational manner, concluding with Dale's background and sleep schedule while on vacation in Bali.1:14–4:26 · Guest teaching 2/10 Introducing Technology Entrepreneur Dale Beaumont Nathan introduces Dale and establishes the baseline business metrics for Bizversity. Dale explains his transition from running live events to launching a mobile-first video learning subscription app.4:26–7:26 · Guest teaching 3/10 Transition from Free Platform to Paid SaaS Nathan presses Dale on high churn rates inherent to content membership sites. He demonstrates industry familiarity by comparing Bizversity's strategy to the pricing and discounting struggles of Udemy and CreativeLive.7:27–10:00 · Guest teaching 5/10 Enterprise Franchise Expansion and Frictionless Learning Nathan pushes back on Dale's B2B franchise strategy, questioning why a corporate franchise wouldn't just create their own training or use YouTube. Dale defends his product by detailing frictionless user experience features like audio CarPlay switching.10:00–13:55 · Guest teaching 4/10 Scaling Business Blueprint to $6 Million in Event Revenue Nathan analyzes the economics of Dale's $6 million coaching business before challenging Dale's claim of 16 bestselling books by pointing out low Amazon sales ranks and missing reviews. Dale clarifies that sales occurred through physical Australian bookshops a decade earlier.13:56–17:31 · Guest teaching 8/10 Self-Publishing Economics and Live Event Book Sales Nathan brings up his own experience negotiating with major publishers, allowing Dale to thoroughly educate him on independent book distribution, retail markups, and author-copy unit economics at live events. Dale rebuts Nathan's suggestion to simply direct stage audiences to Amazon.17:31–18:48 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan executes his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions in a cordial and conversational manner, concluding with Dale's background and sleep schedule while on vacation in Bali.1:14–4:26 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Introducing Technology Entrepreneur Dale Beaumont Nathan introduces Dale and establishes the baseline business metrics for Bizversity. Dale explains his transition from running live events to launching a mobile-first video learning subscription app.4:26–7:26 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Transition from Free Platform to Paid SaaS Nathan presses Dale on high churn rates inherent to content membership sites. He demonstrates industry familiarity by comparing Bizversity's strategy to the pricing and discounting struggles of Udemy and CreativeLive.7:27–10:00 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Enterprise Franchise Expansion and Frictionless Learning Nathan pushes back on Dale's B2B franchise strategy, questioning why a corporate franchise wouldn't just create their own training or use YouTube. Dale defends his product by detailing frictionless user experience features like audio CarPlay switching.10:00–13:55 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Scaling Business Blueprint to $6 Million in Event Revenue Nathan analyzes the economics of Dale's $6 million coaching business before challenging Dale's claim of 16 bestselling books by pointing out low Amazon sales ranks and missing reviews. Dale clarifies that sales occurred through physical Australian bookshops a decade earlier.13:56–17:31 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Self-Publishing Economics and Live Event Book Sales Nathan brings up his own experience negotiating with major publishers, allowing Dale to thoroughly educate him on independent book distribution, retail markups, and author-copy unit economics at live events. Dale rebuts Nathan's suggestion to simply direct stage audiences to Amazon.17:31–18:48 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan executes his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions in a cordial and conversational manner, concluding with Dale's background and sleep schedule while on vacation in Bali.1:14–4:26 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Introducing Technology Entrepreneur Dale Beaumont Nathan introduces Dale and establishes the baseline business metrics for Bizversity. Dale explains his transition from running live events to launching a mobile-first video learning subscription app.4:26–7:26 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Transition from Free Platform to Paid SaaS Nathan presses Dale on high churn rates inherent to content membership sites. He demonstrates industry familiarity by comparing Bizversity's strategy to the pricing and discounting struggles of Udemy and CreativeLive.7:27–10:00 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Enterprise Franchise Expansion and Frictionless Learning Nathan pushes back on Dale's B2B franchise strategy, questioning why a corporate franchise wouldn't just create their own training or use YouTube. Dale defends his product by detailing frictionless user experience features like audio CarPlay switching.10:00–13:55 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Scaling Business Blueprint to $6 Million in Event Revenue Nathan analyzes the economics of Dale's $6 million coaching business before challenging Dale's claim of 16 bestselling books by pointing out low Amazon sales ranks and missing reviews. Dale clarifies that sales occurred through physical Australian bookshops a decade earlier.13:56–17:31 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Self-Publishing Economics and Live Event Book Sales Nathan brings up his own experience negotiating with major publishers, allowing Dale to thoroughly educate him on independent book distribution, retail markups, and author-copy unit economics at live events. Dale rebuts Nathan's suggestion to simply direct stage audiences to Amazon.17:31–18:48 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan executes his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions in a cordial and conversational manner, concluding with Dale's background and sleep schedule while on vacation in Bali.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 60% · guest 40%0:00 · Nathan 60% · guest 40%3:00 · Nathan 18.4% · guest 81.6%3:00 · Nathan 18.4% · guest 81.6%6:00 · Nathan 20.5% · guest 79.5%6:00 · Nathan 20.5% · guest 79.5%9:00 · Nathan 15.6% · guest 84.4%9:00 · Nathan 15.6% · guest 84.4%12:00 · Nathan 24% · guest 76%12:00 · Nathan 24% · guest 76%15:00 · Nathan 17.6% · guest 82.4%15:00 · Nathan 17.6% · guest 82.4%18:00 · Nathan 60.6% · guest 39.4%18:00 · Nathan 60.6% · guest 39.4%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 16:50 Dale rejects the Amazon live-event sales premise

Dale firmly pushes back against Nathan's suggestion to send speaking attendees to Amazon, contrasting a $2 royalty payout against pocketing $25 directly per book.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 12:39 Nathan challenges bestseller claims with Amazon data

Nathan directly challenges Dale's claim of having 16 bestsellers by pointing out that his Amazon listings have virtually zero customer reviews and poor rankings.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 14:46 Dale explains independent book distribution and margin math

Dale educates Nathan on publishing supply chains, demonstrating how self-published authors use independent distributors to get 35% cuts and purchase author copies at $1.50 instead of $10.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 6:57 Nathan outlines the content subscription retention trap

Nathan displays sharp domain expertise on ed-tech business models, detailing how annual lock-ins cause buyer remorse and how platforms like Udemy get stuck in discounting races to the bottom.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing Technology Entrepreneur Dale Beaumont 5212 Nathan introduces Dale and establishes the baseline business metrics for Bizversity. Dale explains his transition from running live events to launching a mobile-first video learning subscription app.
Transition from Free Platform to Paid SaaS 7326 Nathan presses Dale on high churn rates inherent to content membership sites. He demonstrates industry familiarity by comparing Bizversity's strategy to the pricing and discounting struggles of Udemy and CreativeLive.
Enterprise Franchise Expansion and Frictionless Learning 6526 Nathan pushes back on Dale's B2B franchise strategy, questioning why a corporate franchise wouldn't just create their own training or use YouTube. Dale defends his product by detailing frictionless user experience features like audio CarPlay switching.
Scaling Business Blueprint to $6 Million in Event Revenue 7426 Nathan analyzes the economics of Dale's $6 million coaching business before challenging Dale's claim of 16 bestselling books by pointing out low Amazon sales ranks and missing reviews. Dale clarifies that sales occurred through physical Australian bookshops a decade earlier.
Self-Publishing Economics and Live Event Book Sales 6835 Nathan brings up his own experience negotiating with major publishers, allowing Dale to thoroughly educate him on independent book distribution, retail markups, and author-copy unit economics at live events. Dale rebuts Nathan's suggestion to simply direct stage audiences to Amazon.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 4101 Nathan executes his standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions in a cordial and conversational manner, concluding with Dale's background and sleep schedule while on vacation in Bali.

Statements from this episode (11)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Business Blueprint runs about 60 live training events annually
“I've run a business education company for the last, like, 10 years called, called Business Blueprint, which is based around training entrepreneurs, but through primarily live events. We run about 60 live events per year.”
Dale Beaumont Jan 24, 2019 ▶ 1:54
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bizversity acquired 160 paying subscribers in its first month
“Yeah, so we now have about a 160 people that are paying for that service. This is in our first month, so it's sort of brand new in terms of Monetization, and so now it's just a matter of how we can continue to grow.”
Dale Beaumont Jan 24, 2019 ▶ 3:27
Insight
Latka: Content sites suffer far worse churn than software SaaS
“Anytime someone launches a content site or membership site, the hardest thing is churn is through the roof, especially to real SaaS companies that are software based.”
Nathan Latka Jan 24, 2019 ▶ 5:29
Opinion
Latka: CreativeLive and Udemy discount models are a race to the bottom
“Especially just understanding creative lives, business model and Udemy's business model there, you know, they're constantly trying to use pricing leverage to get new people in and retain by just like discounting, discounting, discounting. And it's like a race …”
Nathan Latka Jan 24, 2019 ▶ 7:15
Insight
Beaumont: Great educational content has become a commodity across platforms
“And then the second thing is everyone is sort of focused on great content. And I would sort of say that that's a bit of a commodity. Now there's great content everywhere on every platform.”
Dale Beaumont Jan 24, 2019 ▶ 8:49
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Business Blueprint does $6M in annual revenue from 600 clients
“So we have over 600 people now that pay on average 10,000 dollars a year for our business education program and it operates all across Australia and New Zealand.”
Dale Beaumont Jan 24, 2019 ▶ 10:26
Disclosure
Beaumont bootstraps SaaS startup Bizversity using Business Blueprint revenue
“So what we've been able to do is take a portion of revenue and to be able to diversify and invest in in bizversity.”
Dale Beaumont Jan 24, 2019 ▶ 11:28
Assertion Partly supported
Selling 10,000 copies makes a book a bestseller in Australia
“So best-selling in Australia is to sell 10,000 copies per, per book.”
Dale Beaumont Jan 24, 2019 ▶ 12:25
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dale Beaumont's 'Secrets Exposed' book series has sold 250,000 copies
“So a quarter of a million books have been sold in their secrets exposed series.”
Dale Beaumont Jan 24, 2019 ▶ 12:34
Insight
Self-publishing through independent distributors can double author profit margins
“If you go through, through a major publisher, you normally get a 10% royalty, and that's it. If you go directly to a distributor, you'd get 35% out of which you take your costs. So if your costs are around about, you know, five to sort of seven percent, then y…”
Dale Beaumont Jan 24, 2019 ▶ 14:51
Insight
Over time, authors become the biggest purchasers of their own books
“So over the life of a book, five to 10 years, you actually become the number one consumer, the number one purchaser of your own book.”
Dale Beaumont Jan 24, 2019 ▶ 16:01
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