No BS Mastery Podcast

A lot of people in the service industry use the free consultation strategy to get leads.

You have most likely seen this on websites: “Book a free 15-minute consultation!” or “Book a Free Strategy Session!” Maybe you even do this yourself. 

To be blunt, I hate this strategy. And in this episode, I explain why I strongly believe that you should never give away free consultations to get clients and a more effective approach that you should do instead.

Tune into this episode to hear:

• How free consultations set up clients to devalue your time and your expertise
• How free sessions make pitching your services more uncomfortable, not less
• How a fit call puts you and your potential client on the same page, protects your integrity, and makes selling easier

Resources:

• No BS Agencies Mastery
• The Price to Freedom Calculator™
• No BS Launchpad
• No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook Group
• Start reading the first chapter of my book
• Piasilva.com

Do most or all of your leads come from word of mouth or referrals?

Do you feel lucky that you've never had to market before because they always come?

Word of mouth is one of the most common ways that small one-to-two person branding agencies get their clients. In fact, the majority of the people I talk to say that 90% or more of their business comes from word of mouth or referrals.

Which is great, until one day you realize that you have no clients and you have no idea what to do about it.

So today, I’m talking about what you should do if all of your leads are coming from word of mouth or referrals.

Tune into this episode to hear:

• How relying on word of mouth can create stress in your business and your life
• What it really means when you're closing "every sales call"
• How it is possible to build a sustainable business based on word of mouth and referrals

Resources:

• No BS Agencies Mastery
• The Price to Freedom Calculator™
• No BS Launchpad
• No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook Group
• Start reading the first chapter of my book
• Piasilva.com

The sales and marketing part of your business is the lifeblood of your business.

Without marketing and sales, you have no lead generation. Without leads, you have no business. Because that’s what it takes to get clients to pay you. And a business without paying clients is not a business.

So of course lead generation is on the forefront of everybody’s minds. It’s something that even when you’re successful at it, you still have to think about it constantly. 

Because of that, there are a lot of stories and myths out there that might actually be holding you back. 

Getting your mindset right about it is one of the most important secrets to generating leads. In this episode, I am busting some of the most prevailing myths that are out there about lead generation.

Tune into this episode to hear:

• The real secret to lead generation
• Why strategies that tell you that you can get leads without showing up are BS
• Why outsourcing lead generation and sales doesn’t work for small agencies with high-touch services
• Why you have to suck it up and learn to market and sell your business

Learn more about Pia: 

• Learn more about No BS Agencies Mastery
• No BS Launchpad
• No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook Group
• The Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course 
• Start reading the first chapter of my book
• Piasilva.com
• The 50/25/25 Rule to Profit and Freedom™ Mini Course

Should you invest your time and money on social media to get leads for your branding agency?

That is the million dollar question that we are gonna be dissecting today.

Last month, we talked about clients and how to build great relationships, full of communication with them so that you can get amazing results for your projects. But in order to have clients to build those great relationships with, you have to have clients in the first place.

So this month, we’re talking all about finding leads.

And today, I want to dig into using social media to find clients and if you really should or shouldn’t invest time, energy, and money into social media to get leads.

Tune into this episode to hear:

• Why social media is never going to be a quick fix to get leads
• The first place you should start when you need clients now
• How to use social media to build up your audience and potential client base over time
• The right way to build a social media strategy

Learn more about Pia: 

• Learn more about No BS Agencies Mastery
• No BS Launchpad
• No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook Group
• The Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course 
• Start reading the first chapter of my book
• Piasilva.com
• The 50/25/25 Rule to Profit and Freedom™ Mini Course

How can you turn all clients into raving fan clients who love working with you and cannot stop telling all their friends about you?

That has been our topic this month. In the last two episodes, I talked about two important ingredients, trust and communication.

Today, I want to talk about the third and final main ingredient, which is delight.

Of course, we want to meet and exceed the expectations of our clients. We want them to not only be happy with the end result but overjoyed with it. And we want them to feel a sort of appreciation for us as well. 

How can you add an experience of delight so that clients don't only get what they hoped for when working with you, but they get more?

Tune into this episode to hear:

• What you’re really going after when you give a client a gift
• What a thoughtful client gift should look like
• How to use your automated emails to add little points of delight
• Why it’s worth spending a little extra time to anticipate and fulfill clients needs before they even think of them

Learn more about Pia: 

• Learn more about No BS Agencies Mastery
• No BS Launchpad
• No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook Group
• The Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course 
• Start reading the first chapter of my book
• Piasilva.com
• The 50/25/25 Rule to Profit and Freedom™ Mini Course

Resources:

• E. 112: Dan Gingiss on What Makes a Memorable Customer Experience (Which Does Not Mean Expensive)
• The Leverage Model
• BOXFOX

Last week I talked about the importance of building trust with your clients in order to have a great client relationship.

If you're in a relationship or you've ever been in a long-term relationship, you know that communication is key to having great relationships with people. Now, that might be true with a spouse, but it's true with anybody in your life, and it's definitely true with clients.

So today I want to share a really simple framework that you can use with all of your communication with clients to ensure a great outcome at every step, and so that you don't waste time with all the things that can happen when communication goes astray.

Tune into this episode to hear:

• Why having to refer to the contract means you’re not communicating effectively
• How using “bookends” brings clarity to every client conversation
• Why it’s important for a client to have the next steps clearly written out

Learn more about Pia: 

• Learn more about No BS Agencies Mastery
• No BS Launchpad
• No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook Group
• The Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course 
• Start reading the first chapter of my book
• Piasilva.com
• The 50/25/25 Rule to Profit and Freedom™ Mini Course

Think back to the last client you truly loved working with. What did you love about it?

For me, I love to work with clients who trust me implicitly. They get a ton of value out of working with me. We vibe, we jive, and we make something truly amazing together. They are the people that I’m excited to get emails from, and who I enjoy communicating with in our meetings or phone calls.

Imagine if you loved all of your clients like that. What would that do for your business?

In honor of February, the month of love, I want to talk about client love. Specifically, I want to talk about three different aspects of a client relationship that can take us from a business transaction to something truly magical, something that lights you up, that energizes your clients, and results in much greater outcomes for your delivery.

Today I want to talk about the first ingredient in an amazing love affair with a client: trust.

Tune into this episode to hear:

• How clear, consistent communication builds trust
• How setting and meeting expectations for even micro-interactions turns your word into truth
• Why how you interpret deadlines and send deliverables matters in building or breaking trust
• How a client questioning or nagging you is a symptom of lack of trust

Learn more about Pia: 

• Learn more about No BS Agencies Mastery
• No BS Launchpad
• No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook Group
• The Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course 
• Start reading the first chapter of my book
• Piasilva.com
• The 50/25/25 Rule to Profit and Freedom™ Mini Course

Resources:

• ERPR GROUP

This podcast is called No BS Agencies, but what exactly do I mean by BS?

Where does it come from? Why does it happen? How much of it is acceptable in our businesses? And most importantly, how do we get rid of it?

I think a lot of people use the term BS in their marketing because it makes them sound like they’re no-nonsense. They cut to the point. They’re not going to BS you or waste your time.

But frankly, a lot of people who say they have no BS have a LOT of BS in their processes and their businesses.

So let’s get into what I mean by No BS, what a No BS agency is, and what kind of BS we’re all dealing with.

Tune into this episode to hear:

• How BS sucks your time and energy as a creative and a business owner
• How bad project management enables BS from clients
• Why pitching for free is BS
• Two ways to avoid the BS of scope creep in your projects
• How to navigate pricing BS and get paid what you’re worth

Learn more about Pia: 

• Learn more about No BS Agencies Mastery
• No BS Launchpad
• No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook Group
• The Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course 
• Start reading the first chapter of my book
• Piasilva.com
• The 50/25/25 Rule to Profit and Freedom™ Mini Course

Do you ever feel, as you grow your business, that you are white-knuckling it?

You feel like you’re driving a jalopy, the door's falling off, you're putting duct tape on it, and you're just hoping it gets you to your destination.

In many senses, I’ve been white-knuckling it right along with you over the last two years as I built the No BS Agency Mastery program. Yes, I started with more authority, a bigger audience, and more confidence than someone at the true beginning of building a business, but I still started a new business with a totally new set of skills to learn and a brand new business model to learn and grow.

Through that process, I’ve had the opportunity to go back to how it felt in the beginning, and how it felt to drive that jalopy with the door hanging off.

Today I want to talk to you a little bit about why that feeling is not only okay, It's actually a sign of positive growth.

Tune into this episode to hear:

• Why growth can feel stressful
• Why if you’re not feeling some stress, you’re probably playing it too safe
• How to reframe stress as a good sign in your business

Learn more about Pia: 

• $30K Months Workshop
• Learn more about No BS Agencies Mastery
• No BS Launchpad
• No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook Group
• The Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course 
• Start reading the first chapter of my book
• Piasilva.com
• The 50/25/25 Rule to Profit and Freedom™ Mini Course

As Steve and I head into our 12th year in business, I’ve been thinking about all the incredible highs I’ve experienced in this business. AND the terrifying lows that have come along with it too.

Today, I want to share five of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over the last 12 years that I know will help me make the next 12 years not only more successful but also full of more ease.

Hopefully, you’ll take some of these lessons to heart faster than I did, so they can help you achieve success and add more ease to your business faster.

Tune into this episode to hear:

• Why you have to get comfortable with testing out your ideas and with those ideas failing
• How to let go of treating your income like a salary and look at the big financial picture
• Why focusing on the process, not the outcome, frees you up to do your best work
• How to put the lows of entrepreneurship in perspective
• Why you have to think of your business like a marathon runner, not a sprinter

Learn more about Pia: 

• $30K Months Workshop
• Learn more about No BS Agencies Mastery
• No BS Launchpad
• No BS Agency Owners Free Facebook Group
• The Show Your Business Who's Boss Crash Course 
• Start reading the first chapter of my book
• Piasilva.com
• The 50/25/25 Rule to Profit and Freedom™ Mini Course