No BS Mastery Podcast

Everyone wants to find their one perfect square inch of the market where they can go a mile deep, do good work, and make good money.

You could chase what you think the market wants and jump into a niche that seems hot right now.

You could choose a market segment based on what your degree is in, what you’ve done before, or what you think you should be doing.

You could jump from niche to niche to niche and never see the kind of success you’re looking for.

Or you could find the work that only you can do.

Today, I’m sitting down with Jeffrey Van Dyk to talk about his process for finding the square inch that only you can inhabit because of your history and experiences and emotional and behavioral patterns. Patterns that you also happen to share with your best clients and customers.

Jeff is an international speaker, strategist, and guide who works with highly successful leaders and founders in the second half of life who know that they are meant to transition into their life’s legacy and have a meaningful, lasting impact on the world.

Jeff currently helps spiritually-guided celebrities, business leaders, and founders become more powerful leaders and create the work that only they can deliver to the world.

Tune into this episode to hear:

• Jeff’s journey from coaching anyone on anything, to helping entrepreneurs and coaches connect their passion, purpose and history to their market and messaging
• Why trust is necessary for commitment and risk-taking
• What your core wounds have to do with your business, how you position yourself, and how you connect with your best audience
• Questions that will help you identify patterns of feelings and behaviors that will help you find “your people” in the market

Learn more about Jeffrey: 

• The Courageous Messenger
• The Jeffrey Van Dyk Show
• Activation Tuesdays
• Facebook: @JeffreyVanDykOfficial
• Connect with Jeffrey on LinkedIn
• FREE Sharing Your Unique Genius with the World

Learn more about Pia: 

• 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

Whenever people ask me how I built a business with my husband, they usually add, with an eye roll, “because I could never do that with my partner.” 

And I always kind of laugh and say, “Lots of therapy.”

Which is the truth in many ways. Though it’s not just therapy, it’s both of us actively working on having a healthy, loving, energizing, communicative, successful relationship.

And I believe that having fulfilling relationships in your life really do lead to more business success. And that’s true even if you aren’t running a business with your partner.

Which is why today, we’re veering away from our usual topics and talking about relationships with Nate Bagley. 

Nate is on a mission in life is to rid the world of mediocre love. He is a marriage researcher and educator and host of the Growth Marriage Podcast as well as a kickass Growth Marriage YouTube channel.

And I am just so excited to share this conversation with you, where we are going to talk about how your relationship plays a role in the success of your business. 

Tune into this episode to hear:

• How Nate turned a string of disappointing relationships into a cross-country road trip research project on happy marriages
• Why having a fulfilling romantic relationship is important to running a successful business
• Two key principles for relationship success
• What to do when your partner doesn’t want to put in the work on your relationship
• The connections between anxiety, control and burnout and how it impacts your relationships and your business

Learn more about Nate: 

• Growth Marriage
• Instagram: @GrowthMarriage
• Growth Marriage on YouTube
• Growth Marriage Podcast
• Epic Marriage Club

Learn more about Pia: 

• 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

Resources:

Everything Isn’t Terrible: Conquer Your Insecurities, Interrupt Your Anxiety, and Finally Calm Down, Kathleen Smith

The Gottman Institute

Dr. David Schnarch

What really goes into building your platform?

Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or another site, building an audience for your business through social media presence can be a key piece of marketing your business.

Actually getting traction and followers, however, can seem like a mysterious process. It’s not often that someone with a large following opens up about just how they did it.

Which is why today’s episode is super valuable.

Talia Koren is the founder of Workweek Lunch, a blog and digital meal plan subscription that helps thousands of people all over the world master meal prep. Talia is a self-taught home cook and she started WWL in 2016 to teach her peers how to cook easy, balanced meals to save time and money. Since then, she has grown her Instagram following to nearly 500k followers.

And she’s willing to share the details of how she did it.

We’d all like to have secret weapon to get attention and sales with minimum time and effort, and Talia’s approach is not that. It’s going to take time and effort to get the kind of results Talia did.

But you can build an intentional strategy that will pay off, that will make you money, and will bring new opportunities to you.

Tune into this episode to hear:

Learn more about Talia:

Learn more about Pia:

Resources:

What are you willing to do to get to what you really want?

And how many times are you willing to hit a wall in the process of achieving it?

You need clarity about what you want, but you also need to get clear on your expectations for the results of your actions. 

If you reach out once and assume not hearing back means no, if you pitch a major publication with three articles on your blog, you have to adjust your expectations.

Success is a long game that requires tenacity and consistency. 

Today I’m so excited to catch up with the brilliant and badass Dorie Clark.

In this conversation Dorie shares a behind the scenes look at how she built an impressive and far-reaching brand and reputation online and off, as well as her upcoming book, The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World, and what it means to stay steady on a path to build the business and life you want.

Dorie Clark is an adjunct professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the author of Entrepreneurial You, Reinventing You and Stand Out, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of 2015 by Inc. magazine. A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, the New York Times described her as an “expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives.” A frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, she consults and speaks for clients including Google, Microsoft, and the World Bank.

Tune into this episode to hear:

• What Dorie learned about endurance and persistence from working on a presidential campaign
• How to maintain a strong brand message while continuing to learn and grow
• The importance of being a beginner and learning to practice
• The intentional strategies Dorie developed to build her platform and credibility 
• Why content creation is a key piece of becoming a recognized expert

Learn more about Dorie: 

• DorieClark.com
• Twitter: @dorieclark 
• Facebook: @DorieClarkAuthor
• Instagram: @DorieClark
• Clubhouse: @DorieClark 
• Follow Dorie on YouTube
• Connect with Dorie on LinkedIn
• Free Entrepreneurial You Self-Assessment Workbook
• Courses

Learn more about Pia: 

• 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

Growth is challenging because growth requires change. And many of us are stuck in our ways and we don’t even know it.

Which is why it can be so helpful to have other people ask you questions that will push you out of your comfort zone.

In a coaching program, boot camp or mastermind, you can have someone else force you to really look at yourself and ask, “Am I willing to adapt and grow and change to get the business that I want? And am I getting in the way of what I want?”

And the answer is usually yes.

Today, I’m talking with a business coach who helps his clients and his audience get comfortable with being uncomfortable. He’s got so much to share about business, how to manage teams, and how to think about growth in your business.

Dominic Monkhouse is an architect of business growth and a business coach to some very impressively large IT companies. Before becoming a coach, he headed up and grew multiple multi-million dollar IT companies. Prior to his career in IT, Dominic held positions in a number of industries, including selling gold, diamonds, women’s underwear and chickens. Dominic now helps other businesses as a coach and works with his clients and their teams in the  “Management Lab” on his farm near Salisbury. He also hosts the weekly podcast, The Melting Pot, where he shares nuggets of value and conversations with business leaders about what’s working today.

Tune into this episode to hear:

How Dominic decided to proceed with his controversial book title

Dominic’s approach to coaching and consulting for high-performing IT teams

His advice for pricing increases — especially if you’re nervous about upping your prices

What it really takes to build strong teams that can meet their potential

Why Dominic tells new clients he’s going to make their business “difficult” in the beginning

Learn more about Dominic:

Monkhouse and Company

Connect with Dominic on LinkedIn

Instagram: @monkhouseandcompany

F*ck Plan B: How to Scale Your Technology Business Faster and Achieve Plan A

The Melting Pot

Learn more about Pia:

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

Resources:

The Melting Pot: Badass Your Brand and Show Your Business Who’s Boss with Pia Silva

Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, Kim Scott

When was the last time you visualized the details of what you want from your business and your life?

Did you have a clear, specific picture of what that actually looks like? Not just the money or a title or recognition, but what it looks like day to day. When you see the picture, does it show the life you really want?

Getting clear and specific about your goals avoids you chasing a dream that doesn’t fit you.

What you want will evolve over time as your life changes, which is why it’s a great idea to check in with yourself periodically.

Today, I’m chatting with an entrepreneur who’s had multiple successful careers and many evolutions in her business, from brand strategist to “Approachable Badass.”

Melanie Spring is an international keynote speaker and public speaking trainer. She and her crew travel the world creating branded experiences for humans like you to find your stories, build your confidence, and amplify your voices.

Tune into this episode to hear:

Learn more about Melanie:

Learn more about Pia:

Letting go is hard. It hurts when it’s time to retire something you worked really hard on and that you’re proud of, especially when it’s working. But sometimes you have to let go of things that are good to make room for something great.

Those good enough things might be filling the space and time you need to grow and expand into new places that will lead to even greater success.

Saying no to clients and to money now so you can grow in the long term is difficult and scary. But if you are set on continuing to grow and nurture and nourish a business that serves you and serves your goals and your mission, you have to get used to the idea that you will have to turn down projects and opportunities in order to make space for bigger and better projects down the line.

Which is why today’s summer quickie comes from Episode 27 with Michelle Mercurio. She shares about her struggle to let go of things in her business that were doing well and making her lots of money and how she ultimately decided that they really did have to go.

Tune into this episode to hear:

Learn more about Michelle:

Learn more about Pia:

There is so much talk about story.

What’s your story? You need to have a good story for your brand. Blah, blah, blah.

I think a lot of people don’t actually understand what “story” really means and how to use it to build your brand.

So today, I wanted to revisit a clip from Episode 23 with Melanie Gow, the brilliant mind behind my TED Talk last year.

Melanie understands story deeply. She is so good at cutting through the BS and getting to the core of what somebody’s story is — where they came from and how that has shaped who they are and how they see the world.

I hope this clip inspires you to think about what other stories you have inside you that have shaped who you are and how those stories can be brought out to add color and depth to your brand and your brand story.

Tune into this episode to hear:

Learn more about Melanie:

Learn more about Pia:

What if you reimagined the norms of your industry? Said no to the conventions that don’t work for you and worse, kept your business from being profitable?

People will say it can’t be done, that the industry model exists for a reason, you’ll never get clients, and on and on.

But what if breaking out of the mold meant you could actually produce your best work for your clients?

There are opportunities to do things differently from how everyone in the industry does it. If you allow yourself to explore, you may find a better way of doing things. Or a way that fits you better, something you enjoy. This can be your most exciting opportunity to build something really special and unique.

In this Summer Quickie, I’m revisiting a conversation from Episode 25 with Rachael Wonderlin of Dementia By Day.

Rachael is one of those people who stared her industry in the face and said, “I don’t think this is how it needs to be.” She saw a better way and wasn’t afraid to try something new and figure it out on her own.

Tune into this episode to hear:

Learn more about Rachael Wonderlin:

Learn more about Pia:

What do you want your business to look like?

What would it take to stop playing defense and start getting into offense?

When you’re operating in default mode, relying solely on referrals, you’re operating from a defensive position. You need a system that allows you to consistently take action to get business.

You need to flip the script and ask yourself the hard questions about what you want your business to look like, who you want to work with, how you want to work with clients, how much money you want to make. When you get that clarity, you can make a plan.

It’s a lot easier said than done.

In this summer quickie, I’m going back to an episode with Amanda Silver.

Amanda Silver is a leadership consultant, coach and trainer for social change leaders and organizations.  She is passionate about creating thriving teams and cultures that get things done.  Her unique approach focuses on heart and mind leadership and draws on expertise in mindfulness, emotional-intelligence, and strength-based mindsets.

She shares how she used to be completely reliant on referrals for her business, which meant that she couldn't say no to clients. She had to take what she could get. And she was always scared. She didn't know where her next clients were coming from.

And she’ll share how she evolved her business to get the clients she really wanted and do the work she loves doing.

Tune into this episode to hear:

Learn more about Amanda Silver:

Learn more about Pia: