No BS Mastery Podcast

Have you ever struggled to make decisions about your business?Whether it’s investing in your business, crafting your messaging, focusing your niche, or packaging your services, business owners are faced with a ton of decisions.And it can be easy to get stuck thinking, “if I knew it would work, I would…” You worry about it not working, or changing your mind, or getting pigeonholed.For our  hundredth episode, I want to talk about why those worries shouldn’t keep you from making decisions, because guess what? Your business can and will change.My business–and this podcast–have changed dramatically over the last two years. And in the two years before that. And the two years before that.So if business is continuously changing, how do you plan things? How do you decide what to focus on?That's what I want to talk about today.Tune into this episode to hear:How doing intensives supported us while we went through multiple versions of the businessWhy it’s worth it to invest in your business, even when money is tightHow all of the pivots add up to the experiences that help you create the business you wantLearn more about Pia: No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook GroupThe Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course Start reading the first chapter of my bookPiasilva.comResources:Online Marketing Made Easy, with Amy PorterfieldCaitlin BacherEvents - UGURUS

Do you do graphic design or do you do branding?Do you do visual branding or do you do strategic branding?Do you do brand strategy? Do you even know what strategy is?Strategy is such an elusive concept. Everybody means something different when they say it. And if you're somebody coming in to deliver strategy to your clients, how do you know if you're delivering it at the right level for them?Well, that's what I want to talk about today. Because it doesn’t have to be as complicated as we make it out to be.So, what is strategy and how do you get good at it?Tune into this episode to hear:What strategy really is and why it’s not as complicated as people think it isWhy you shouldn’t use the word strategy with your clientsWhy you need to keep learning tools and building experiences to craft thoughtful, well-tailored strategies for your clientsLearn more about Pia: No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook GroupThe Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course Start reading the first chapter of my bookPiasilva.comResources:Genius ShieldEdiuska Laurens

Doing marketing can really suck.It can suck your time. It can suck your energy. And a lot of marketing out there well, kind of sucks.Which is where today’s badass business owner comes in. Justina Cerra Lucas is the founder of 218 Creative, where she helps creatives and entrepreneurs book more clients with marketing that doesn’t suck.Justina doesn’t believe that there’s a one-size-fits-all solution to your marketing, but she also believes that it doesn’t have to be complicated or overwhelming. In fact, she says over-complicating it is one way that leads to sucky marketing.We’re going to chat about what it looks like to create a marketing plan that doesn’t suck, especially for creatives, agencies, and people who are out there selling branding and marketing, but just can’t do it for themselves.Justina Cerra Lucas is a marketing professional by day and cat mom by night. With over a decade of experience in marketing across industries ranging from nonprofit to Hollywood entertainment and everywhere in between, she found that her favorite people to work with are other creative small business owners. She's been around long enough to bring thoughtful strategy to the table and knows that marketing doesn't necessarily have to be complicated in order for it to be successful. Empowering others to be able to carry out their marketing confidently is her jam.Tune into this episode to hear:Why you have to stop taking generic marketing advice from other business ownersHow to stop asking yourself what you should be doing and think like your target audienceWhy agency owners need to focus on building a real marketing strategy, not getting on TikTokHow to set your marketing budget with the ROI in mindLearn more about Justina Cerra Lucas:218 CreativeInstagram: @218CreativeFacebook: @218CreativeCommunicationsFREE DownloadLearn more about Pia: No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook GroupThe Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course Start reading the first chapter of my bookPiasilva.com

When you’re networking and connecting with people in the early stages of your business, it’s easy to slip out of people's minds unless they have someone they can refer to you right now.It happens to all of us, even if we mean really well. When I was networking, I had so many lunches and coffees with people where I genuinely thought I was going to find someone for the insurance agent or real estate broker I’d just sat down with. Then two days later, back in my own world, I’d forget.So what do you do to stay on someone’s mind?How do you continue to connect with people, learn more about them and what makes their business tick, and share more about yourself? Enter the killer outreach strategy.Tune into this episode to hear:How to turn asking for a referral into a really valuable offerWhy free webinars, workshops, and masterclasses still work How to use your list of one hundred for customized outreachLearn more about Pia: No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook GroupThe Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course Start reading the first chapter of my bookPiasilva.comResources:Duck Donuts

Being able to attract and close clients is a fundamental part of any service business. If you can't do this, you won't have a business. So obviously it's one of the most important things that you should know how to do. But when I ask people, “How do you get clients right now?”, so many people don’t know what to do.In fact, the number one question I get asked is “How do I find clients?”I get asked by people who don’t know how to get clients at all and they’re struggling to close any clients. And I get asked by people who have plenty of clients but really want to know how to get better clients.Either way, you have to be able to go and find clients consistently if you want to have a business.Tune into this episode to hear:Why your business needs both short and long-term marketing strategies to succeedThe first thing you need to do for short-term marketingWhy content marketing is a long-term strategyWhen you should focus on short-term strategies and when your business is ready to shift to a long-term focusLearn more about Pia: No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook GroupThe Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course Start reading the first chapter of my bookPiasilva.com

When you think about your week, what are the most important things you focus on to move your business forward?Maybe you want to get posts up on social media so you can grow your audience. Maybe you want to tweak your lead magnet. Maybe you’re so busy with client work and you want to hire a freelancer so you can outsource some of the work.Those aren’t bad things to do. Posting on social media is a great marketing strategy. Working on your lead magnet so people happily hand over their emails builds your list. Using freelancers that you up-charge the client for so you can free up your time is a great idea.But the question is, are those the right things for you to do at this moment in your business?Maybe not.If you’re working too many hours for too little money, I can pretty much guarantee you that at least 50% of the things that you do each week are probably not going to help you make any more money or work any less.Imagine if you could identify 50% of the things you were doing that aren’t helping you grow your business and you could just stop doing them. You can. And that’s what we’re talking about today.Tune into this episode to hear:How to tell if you’re in the right place to implement a long-term strategy like social media content or building a better lead magnetWhy I put authority building last in the No BS Agency Mastery ProgramWhy hiring a freelancer probably isn’t the right choiceWhat your top priority should be to beat overwhelm and bring in more clientsLearn more about Pia: No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook GroupThe Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course Start reading the first chapter of my bookPiasilva.comResources:No BS Agency Podcast EP 92: The Difference Between a Freelancer and an Expert And Why You Want to be Intentional in How You Position Yourself

No entrepreneur goes straight up the ladder to success. And no entrepreneur achieves success without investing in themselves.But how do you know what’s an investment in yourself and your business and what’s just spending money?On today's episode. I'm so excited to host my new friend and bad-ass business owner, Shannon Mattern.Shannon teaches solopreneurs how to DIY their website and mentors web designers on how to package, price, sell and run premium web design projects with boundaries (not burnout).Shannon’s also the host of Pep Talks for Side Hustlers, a podcast for side-hustlers who want to become self-employed (without taking a pay cut)!Tune into this episode to hear:Why Shannon gives the honest truth on her podcast about what she spent and what she earnedFive questions to ask yourself when you’re making an investment in yourselfPros and cons of credit, loans, and debt when it comes to investing in your businessWhy you need to be able to invest what you’re asking clients to payLearn more about Shannon Mattern:ShannonMattern.comInstagram: @shannonlmatternPep Talks for Side HustlersWeb Designer AcademyLearn more about Pia: No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook GroupThe Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course Start reading the first chapter of my bookPiasilva.comResources:Smart Passive Income Podcast with Pat Flynn

The No BS Agency model is about doing projects in intensives. This means short timelines.A lot of people wonder, "Won’t shorter project timelines result in less valuable work for the client?"When I tell people that we deliver entire brands and websites in a two-day intensive Brand Up, many people assume we’re delivering templated work, that the work must be shoddy, that it’s rushed, that there’s just no way you can deliver high quality work in a short amount of time.Not only is that not true, but it’s actually the exact opposite. We have found that you can deliver more value in less time. If you play your cards right.Today I’m going to tell you why.Tune into this episode to hear:Why hard work and busy work don’t equal great workHow making art and designing a brand aren’t the same thing and don’t require the same processHow jumping from project to project breaks your focus and wastes timeLearn more about Pia: No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook GroupThe Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course Start reading the first chapter of my bookPiasilva.com

Do you feel stuck charging low prices for your work? Do you feel like people around you just don't ever want to pay more than you're asking for? In fact, they don't even want to pay the prices that you're pitching them.Well, that may be because you are stuck thinking about yourself and pitching yourself as a freelancer.If you want to charge higher and higher prices–those premium prices that everybody's talking about–then you need to evolve from a freelancer into an expert. What’s the difference? That’s what I’m going to tell you today, plus how to start positioning yourself as an expert and stop pitching yourself as a freelancer.Tune into this episode to hear:What people really hire freelancers to do, and why you don’t want to a hired hand or an outsourced employeeWhy experts guide and even challenge their clientsHow a lead product helps position you as the expertWhy positioning yourself as an expert allows you to charge based on value, not deliverablesLearn more about Pia: No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook GroupThe Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course Start reading the first chapter of my bookPiasilva.com

I bet you have a number you want to make each month. Maybe it’s the holy grail of making six figures. Or maybe it’s the amount of cash you want to have in your bank account.We all have some number in our heads that we think, "When I have that amount, when I’m making that much money, then I will feel safe. I will feel secure and stable and I can breathe in my business."When we first started in 2011, $10,000 a month was our holy grail number.I felt like if I could get to that level, everything would feel solid and I would feel okay.And I hustled to get there. We opened for business in March, I started networking in June, pounding the pavement meeting everyone I possibly could, and by August 2011, we hit our first $10,000 month.And it felt like such a sweet victory to have made it there.The problem was, that was now my benchmark. The months after that when I didn’t hit $10,000, I felt like a failure. And it didn’t get rid of my stress, because I had to hustle for that money every month.After many years in business, many nights stressing about money, and lots of personal work to shift how I felt about that security I was chasing, I have come to a very different conclusion about what it means to feel financially secure.What I’ve realized is that it’s not about how much money you’re making in a month or in a year, or even how much money you have in the bank. None of those things is going to make you feel secure if you don’t know how to generate money.So let’s talk about how to do that so you can be financially secure and financially free.Tune into this episode to hear:What bartending taught me about financial securityThe pieces your business needs in place so you can feel confident about generating incomeWhy reinvesting in your business and building your skills will lead to more money in the bank than when you’re saving small amountsLearn more about Pia: No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook GroupThe Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course Start reading the first chapter of my bookPiasilva.comResources:$100M Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No, Alex Hormozi