No BS Mastery Podcast

All this month, I’m talking about some of the most common and frequent mistakes I see people make in their one-to-two person branding agencies.  Today, I want to talk about choosing a niche. Yes, you need a niche and I love helping businesses find theirs, but it’s not as straightforward as it sounds. Niching is about more than just picking an industry you want to work with. In this episode, I talk...

This month, I’m digging into some of the mistakes I see one-to-two person branding agencies make over and over again. And today, I want to talk about pricing.  Pricing your services is an art and it’s something people struggle with all the time inside the No BS Mastery program and out in the world. It also happens to be one of my favorite things to help people reconsider and fix so that they can b...

When you spend a lot of time working with one market, you start to notice patterns. I’ve worked with hundreds of one-to-two person branding agencies over the last few years, and I see people make the same mistakes over and over again. No matter how we address it in our curriculum, or how many times I talk about it, there are certain things that people in our industry gravitate towards doing that a...

Today, I’m sharing a conversation with one of my star students-turned coaches, Erika Stanley.  Erika has truly mastered the No BS model. She's done an amazing job finding more freedom, space, and enjoyment in her life in a way that I know so many entrepreneurs wish they could. She’s also become a highly-valued and much-loved member of our No BS community. In this conversation, she shares her story...

“If you can make $30,000 or more in just a few days of branding work with Worst of All Design, why would you ever start a training program?” This month, I’m talking about my why. Why I do what I do, what motivates me, and what has made me the business owner I am today.  And today, I’m going to answer one of my most frequently asked questions. Why start No BS Agencies Mastery?  It’s a fair question...

Sometimes people ask me, “If you’re so successful in your agency, why are you doing this training program?” To really answer that, we’ll have to rewind a bit, to my introduction to the concepts of microlending and social entrepreneurship, and how they taught me that seemingly small actions could have major positive impacts. Continuing this month’s series on connecting with your “why” and getting c...

There’s a daily journaling exercise that I suggest to everyone who joins No BS Agencies Mastery.  There are four questions in the exercise, and it takes as little as five minutes to complete, but one question in particular is critical for success: Why are you doing this? There is no right or wrong answer, and your response might change every day. There are a lot of reasons to build a business. But...

 Does your business ever stress you out?   Silly question, right? Of course it does!  Being a business owner can be incredibly stressful and overwhelming. The responsibility can be heavy and when things aren’t going well, it can feel like your entire world is imploding. I know I’m not the only one who’s been brought to tears with stress and frustration and worry in the course of running a business...

When you decided to hang your own shingle and be your own boss, did you imagine that you’d finally have the kind of freedom and flexibility that you never did as an employee? But how much freedom do you actually feel? Are you tied to your business at all hours, constantly answering emails, afraid to leave your phone or laptop for even a day?  If that’s you, you are not alone. It’s a phase of busin...

If you’ve been running your business for a while and still feeling underpaid and overworked —you are not alone. There are three things that most people are looking for when they decide to build a No BS Agency: Profit, Freedom, and Ease. We can teach them all of our strategies, tactics, and action plans to make that happen. But none of it will work unless they are able and willing to make some crit...

What makes messaging stick? Today, I’m digging into that question with marketing and communications expert, Ben Guttmann. Plus we’ll talk about his experience of growing and then selling an agency, and the opportunities that have opened up as a result. Ben Guttmann is a marketing and communications expert and author of Simply Put: Why Clear Messages Win–and How to Design Them . He’s an experienced...

This month, I’ve been talking about the value of building an Authority Machine, what it is, what it can give you and your business, and what you need to focus on to make it successful. So at this point you might be asking yourself, “So how long is this going to take?” Here’s the truth: It’s not simple, fast, or free. Building an Authority Machine that produces results takes time, effort, and consi...

Over the years, I have taken a lot of people through the process of building their Authority Machine. One of the most common reasons people get stuck or can’t even begin is the thought that they don’t have anything new, unique or interesting to add. Others know what they want to say, but  feel like an imposter and not successful “enough” to share their point of view. But there’s a big secret that...

Most entrepreneurs I meet built their businesses because they want more agency over their lives. They want to make more money and have more freedom over how they spend their time. And yet, starting a small business usually comes with anything but financial freedom and stability, at least at first. But once you nail down your processes you’ll start to feel like you’re the boss of your business inst...

Everybody wants to be seen as an authority or an expert, whether you use those words or not. Why? Because being seen as an expert or an authority is what allows you to continuously raise your prices, sell more and more profitable projects, and achieve higher and higher levels of freedom and ease in your business and your life. Inside Mastery, we talk about building an Authority Machine as the thir...

Today I’m talking with one of my star students turned No BS Mastery coach, Sara Chambers, about ditching proposals, committing to the No BS process even through bumpy times, and how she’s been able to up level her business since joining the program. Sara Chambers loves collaborating, community, and coffee. Alliteration is clearly her favorite literary device and she’s a fierce advocate for the Oxf...

What happens if the client hates the work you bring to their Intensive? Presenting your work to a client is always a little nerve wracking. You’ve put time and effort and love into it and it’s hard not to take it personally when the client isn’t excited about it. So of course when I tell people that we do entire branding projects in one-to-three day intensives, their biggest question is, “What hap...

Can you actually do quality work, bespoke custom brands and websites and amazing copy in an intensive? For real? Today I’m going to break down the three major assumptions behind that question. Because absolutely yes, you can do quality, custom work in an intensive, and I wouldn’t do it any other way. Tune into this episode to hear: Why the time your clients pay for is not the hours you put into ea...

How do we put a stop to dragging project timelines and scope creep? Intensives. Intensives are a core piece of the No BS model that I talk about on this podcast and inside our No BS Agency Mastery program. But a lot of people have preconceived notions about what intensives are and what they aren't. So today I want to tell you exactly what intensives are and how they can help your business.  Tune i...

Chris Do is a major name in the industry with a massive following across social media and YouTube. And while we have very different philosophies about scale and how we work with clients, there actually is a lot of overlap between Chris’s methodology and the No BS way.  So we had plenty to talk about during this conversation that I’m so excited to share with you today. Chris Do is an Emmy award-win...

Picture this: You get all dressed up and drag yourself to a networking event. You spend a couple of hours meeting people. Maybe you have a few nice conversations. You leave at the end of the night exhausted and wondering why you even went to the event and if there was any value in it.  Last week I talked about how connecting with people in real life and building your network is the go-to strategy...

“How do I get leads?” It’s the million dollar question. When you have a business, you need sales. To make sales, you need leads. And finding them is probably the biggest challenge that small business owners face. Maybe right now you’re taking whatever work you can get and relying on referrals to bring in new business. But when you rely on referrals, you have no idea when the next one is going to s...

Back by popular demand, here's an episode that answers a question I get asked all the time. Tune into this episode to hear: How to use a lead product to stop doing proposals and start getting paid How to create a lead product that is clear, actionable and valuable for your clients Why a lead product sets you apart as the expert even in a sea of free proposals Why signaling that your time is valuab...

If the idea of selling and asking people to buy from you makes you nervous, this one’s for you.  My guest today is going to explain how storytelling takes the ick out of making sales, through what she calls “ethical persuasion.” No tricks, no gimmicks, no bait and switch. Just connecting with your clients over the issues they’re facing and how you can help. Marsha Shandur believes that storytellin...

For our final episode of love month, I want to switch gears from talking about client love to a different kind of love: self-love. Building a business is freaking hard. Why else would there be so much content geared towards making it easier? As you’re growing a business, it’s so easy to feel like you’re never doing enough, you’re never doing it right. And that can take a toll on your self-esteem....