From Passion Project to Corporate Casualty: The TNC Saga
From Passion Project to Corporate Casualty: The TNC Saga  
Podcast: Business Lunch
Published On: Thu Sep 03 2026
Description: Roland Frasier and Ryan Deiss tell the whole story of Traffic and Conversion Summit: a marketing event that started in 2009 with 289 people and no profit, grew to thousands of attendees, and sold to Clarion Events in 2018 at the highest multiple the buyer had ever paid for an event. Then they walk through what happened after the sale: the 80 percent rollover deal, the earn out, the put and call option that paid out zero after the pandemic, and why the corporate owners could not keep the soul of an event built by marketers for marketers. Real deal structure lessons from their own exit, including how to carve off the one asset a buyer actually wants and keep everything else. 0:00 Cold open: the vision behind the best event people ever attended 0:30 Welcome, a fire alarm night, and why Traffic and Conversion Summit is officially over 3:52 2009: 289 people, no profit, and a rule against pitch fests 6:24 Year three: the event becomes a business and launches DigitalMarketer 7:54 Sponsors, production value, and no more selling from stage 12:02 Clarion Events comes calling with a global vision 14:58 The event was a product line, not a company: thin slicing the deal 17:01 Air rights and bundles of sticks: sell only what the buyer wants 19:53 Deal structure: 80 percent sold, cash plus an earn out, the goose and eggs, the put and call 24:45 Having your cake: programming control, free booth space, the only offer from stage 26:34 How it all went wrong: the pandemic, a multiple of zero, bought out for nothing 34:52 Why TNC failed: the business model changed hands Listen to Business Lunch: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/business-lunch/id1442654104 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0iWSA89TaD263zhXETdSvZ Follow Roland Frasier: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rolandfrasier/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rolandfrasier/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rolandfrasier Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RolandFrasierPage/ Everything else: https://msha.ke/rolandfrasier/ Follow Ryan Deiss: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryandeiss/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryandeiss/ X: https://x.com/ryandeiss Visit: https://www.scalable.co