Episode 146: Badass Your Brand with Pia Silva

So here's the deal, you two. I signed up for ancestry DNA.

Yeah. No, my parents did it.

Your parents did it?

Yeah.

What'd they find out about your family?

Melanasian.

Melanie was like half melon or something. I never heard of Melanasian.

Yeah, that's exactly what it is. No, it is like Fijian, Papua New guinea, you know, think of.

That's the Melana area. I did not know. Have you done it?

I have, yeah. My. I found out I'm like, like a tiny bit Swiss and actually a lot of my ancestors, my French ancestors came in through Canada. And there's like a Bolduc Hotel.

There's a Bolduc Hotel?

Yeah. Ran by Boulder. Like central.

We gotta go there. I know.

Well, it's not named Bulldog Hotel, but.

Oh, it's not?

No, it's. No, I swear to God. I swear to God. No.

It.

I don't know, they're just all like in this little. It's cool.

Is it called Holiday Inn? Moteli what's the real name?

I don't know. It's like a Mom and pop. I don't even know if it's still there, but I almost fell.

A hysterical joke. A motel. A joke that wasn't funny.

It wasn't hysterical. It's clearly not hysterical.

Cuz here's the deal. That hurts and it's true. But here's the deal. You said it's the Bulldog Hotel. So I think of this mansion, this beautiful thing. Motel is this cheap, like, you know, $65 a night type place. Yeah, that's hysterical. Well, here's what's also hysterical. Yeah, I was going to Ancestry DNA. It's like $99 or something. I'm like. And then it comes up and says, enter the promo code. Have you ever done that? When you visit a site and you see it's a promo code you can enter. I started searching the web for like hours to save five bucks.

Yeah.

Do you do that?

I do it every time.

Every time.

They get so many out there.

That's how they get you.

Yeah. You go these coupon sites.

Coupon.

What are you supposed to call? Coupon?

Yeah.

Is it really pronounced? Is it pronounced coupon?

You don't call it a coupon.

I call it a coupon.

You call it. I call it a coupon.

Coupon.

That's not even. Wow.

Wow.

You are listening.

Are you sitting all cocky? You're like, yeah, everyone knows a Koopa.

Oh, let me try that again. You are listening to the Profit first podcast, episode 146. There we go.

There we go. Yes.

Getting in the groove. Welcome, everyone, to the Profit first podcast. I'm Christina Bolduck, the office mom of Profit First Professionals.

I know. She did actually kind of mom me earlier.

It's true.

You don't pronounce a Q punch.

It's too far.

My call.

My call. I am Mike Michalowicz, the author of Profit First. Tell me, tell me you have your copy of the book. Oh, you know, it just got translated to Chinese. We just got the deal about 10 minutes ago.

Fantastic. Congratulations.

So that's.

Wait, so we're in Spanish. We're in Dutch. Dutch, Chinese, German, German.

Oh, Korean. Amazing. Yeah. And two more languages. Well, I'm the guy who wrote that book. I didn't translate it. I'm here with Kelsey Ayers. Hello, everyone. And you are listening to the Product first podcast. This is a show where we explore every single element of profitability. Every element.

Yes, you can find us on itunes, Stitcher, Tunein Radio, Google Play, and of course, profitfirstpodcast.com and any other podcatcher that you're aware of. If you know that we don't, let me know.

Can you imagine we're somewhere we don't know.

I know, right? Crazy. What are you up to, Mike? What's been going on?

So I went to Ancestry DNA. So you have the spit in these things?

Yeah.

So you did. How did you know this?

My dad and my mom both did it.

Okay, so you did.

You.

I witnessed it, yes.

That's a lot of spit. And so here's the thing. You have to keep on spitting into this vial until it. It fills all the way up and there could be no bubbles, which. How do you spit with no bubbles? Like, that makes no sense.

Yeah, I didn't realize that you, like.

I guess you drool into it. E. Oh, that's.

You know, that's.

Oh, you asked the question.

And you can't eat or drink, so that's what I've been up.

Oh, it's been, like, six hours in it.

Spitting. What?

It can't have food particles in it?

No, no, Gross. I wonder why I'm so. I don't know. Like, I'm like. You're part meatloaf. What have you been up to, Kebi?

Oh, God. We had a cheat day yesterday. So we've been back in the gym, doing our thing, lifting weights and hiking and stuff like that. But yesterday, there is this donut shop in Middletown, New York. It's this, like, little mom and pop place. It's called Daddy's donuts. And it is so good. They're homemade. And I had, like, the apple pie one. It's literally like apple pie filling in a donut with, like, crumble on top. And I think I also had a strawberry glaze, too. I kind of blacked it out because I just ate so much, but they're huge and they're so good. And today I could not fit into my jeans. I was like, after one day, I'm so bloated.

That can't be.

No, I swear.

Really?

Yeah. I wore them on Saturday and then I couldn't get into it this morning, so I was like, guess we're going to the gym tonight. But they're worth it. It really is nice.

What have you been up to, Ayers?

Well, it's my birthday week, so yesterday we had our kind of family celebration, which was awesome.

Are you turning the big.

I am 30.

The big three zero.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What's your favorite, like, birthday treat to eat?

Ice cream cake.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

What kind of ice cream? Like, what's your favorite ice cream?

Anything with peanut butter in it. So, like, peanut butter ripple, Any kind of Reese's? Yep.

Do you is. What's that one? Chunk.

Chunky Monkey.

Monkey. I'm not a big banana flavor fan. I like bananas by themselves, but. But not the flavoring.

Oh, okay. I agree with that. The flavoring is. It's too, like, manufactured, I think.

Yeah. Chemically.

I like banana and peanut butter together, though.

Me too. Like, I eat bananas and peanut butter almost every day.

A lot of people talk, have you.

Ever made your own ice cream through, like, the fruit? Like the press? So many times, but it's a banana and then you mix in flavors. So. Good.

Make your own ice cream.

Yeah. Through fruit.

So in a little bit, we're going to have a guest on talking about how to badass your brand, how to stop doing all the work. She's got a lot of stuff going on here, but really, how to badass your brand. Either a personal brand or your business brand. So we're gonna discover that I do want to dig into our community shout outs and stuff.

Yes.

Do we have any?

We do. We do. This comes from Jim Jackson of Torque Motorsports and he says, I've been through the tpe, which is toilet paper entrepreneur, and now going through profit first. We are making it a point to implement the steps that you are covering immediately. We are sick of being poor and always in crisis. It's always, always sell to survive and there's nothing left over. Right now we are Trying to shift our business model to become a retail shop online and walk in for four by four parts and accessories. This was. This will help us be less than. Be less custom and more streamlined. So that's awesome, Jim. Hey, Jim, take that first step.

Yeah, Jim, take that first step. And by the way, Jim, I know you're listening. Put your ear a little closer to the speaker. Closer, closer. There you go. Get your button gear. All right. Wishing you tremendous amounts of profit.

Do you have a secret sound for us today, Mike?

I do, I do, but that's. Our guest has to do that. Like when our guest comes.

Oh, I thought we get to do.

Listen, you got jugs of wine. No, you guys need to do too. You got jugs of wine right now.

I got to get drunk.

All right, just give me one.

Okay. Who's this?

So. So our listeners know is our members of Profit First Professionals. These are accountants and bookkeepers. When they have a big success, we. We share it. So.

Yeah, so. So this comes from Joanne Beck. This was back in December. And she sent us this bottle of wine. It's a Pinot noir. And she said, hey, profit first family. I scored my first profit first client today and that was back in December. So, Joanne, you're killing it out there, man.

And hey, you listener, you should be working with Joanne Beck. She's extraordinary.

Why aren't you?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Maybe they didn't know Joanne was around. I mean, she only just got her first client in December, so she's around. She's awesome. I actually, I don't personally coach many of our members, but I am personally working with Joanne. Becky. Oh, gosh, I'm so out of sorts here. Corporate partners, you want to just rattle them off real quick?

Sure.

It's Fundera Fundbox.

I need some sound effects.

Receipt Bank Nextiva.

There we go.

N0.

Thank you.

Okay, I was really late to the button there. Let me see. Okay, so yeah, we'll talk about the sponsors a little bit later when we do. And we're also going to share what we learned from Pia Silva. Now here's the deal, yo. She's an entrepreneur, speaker and writer. She is a partner and brand strategist. At worst of all, Design. That's a great name for a company where they build badass brands without the BS for one to three person service businesses in a one to three intensive. She is a Forbes contributor. That's the magazine. She is the host of an entrepreneurial organization. Organizations including the Goldman Sachs. Oh, she's the host. I read that too quickly. She has spoken as a host at the entrepreneur organizations, including Goldman Sachs's 10,000 small businesses. Blah, blah, blah. She's awesome. She's amazing. She's awesome. And she wrote a book called badass your brand. Pia, welcome to the show.

Welcome. Thank you.

Great to be here.

So, Pia, before we get started. And this is two for Kelsey and Christina. Tell us if you recognize this song, this sound. We played a sound for about four episodes. I think it was three or four episodes of Godzilla. People thought it was a truck crashing under a bridge. Yeah, no one guessed it. See if you know what this. This show tune is from.

You know the A Team.

Oh, do you guys know? It's not the A Team. It's so obvious.

Is it, like, the whiz?

It's not the Wiz.

I don't know.

What is it? What do you think? It. I love how you're. Kelsey's, like, jamming up. Her head's going back and forth. She's like, I don't care what it is. I am gonna party.

Yeah, I actually have no idea.

No idea. Okay, so do your research on 70s TV shows. You guys will figure it out. We'll try. With our next guest. The reason is all of you are millennials. Pia.

Of course.

Pia. You're. How old are you, Pia?

I'm about to be 33.

Oh, my God. 33. And how old are you, Christina?

I'm gonna be 28.

Oh, my God. Almost 50. All right.

And you say things like coupon.

I do say coupon. Well, back in the 70s, we used to call it a coupon before the millennials changed it. So, Pia, what does it mean to badass your brand?

It means to have the balls to go all the way with what's so awesome about you and what you have to offer.

Okay, so in a nutshell. Okay, so have the balls to go all the way. So I. I don't even know what that means. Like, what does that mean?

Oh, I think you know what that means, Mike.

Well, okay, I don't know what. I know what it means for me, but. What?

Elaborate a little bit.

Yeah, elaborate.

Well, so I define badass brands as having two critical characteristics. One, it's got to be able to command a premium price, so you have to be able to charge more than the competition and still win the business. And two, it has to attract ideal clients, and that means it's okay with repelling everybody else. It's not for everybody. You got to be badass if you're okay, Being misunderstood or disliked by others. That's how you get real raving fans.

So, you know, I see all these books out there. Badass. Your brand, yours be a badass. There's other ones, like, you know, un f yourself, and they put the full word in there, all these different things. It seems to be so popular now just to go to this extreme, to be yourself all out. Does it mean you got to start f bombing and stuff, or. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, yeah, it's a great question. I mean, and I actually explained that to a lot of people. A lot of our clients are lawyers, financial planners. I mean, we attract people who are badasses in their industry. And it doesn't mean that you have to f this half that. It means, you know, compared to the landscape, what is great about you and do you have the guts to really own it. And I find a lot of entrepreneurs don't have the guts. They're too scared to say no to this client or that client to really create the foundation of what they're all about. So that's. That's part of what the badassery is all about. It's like, do you have the guts to say no to clients who aren't perfect for you so you can attract the clients that are ideal?

Okay, so I get to say no to clients. I want to explore that more in a second. But first, you said you got to compare the landscape, but you also said you got to be yourself. You got the balls to be yourself fully. What if everyone in my landscape is all out? You know, everyone's being themselves fully. Does that mean I'm in the wrong space? Do I have to go to a place where the competition doesn't get it?

Well, first of all, there's no space where everybody's being themselves all out, because I know it's really difficult to do. It's really hard to own what's so special about you. I mean, a big part of our process is digging deep into a client's past experiences and saying, you know, which are the clients that you did really, really well for? Who did you knock it out of the park for? What do you love about what you do? You know, who are your best clients? And then can you build a business around focusing just on that? You know, finding just those ideal clients? And I find that alone is a real challenge for people because a lot of my clients, you know, small service business, usually overworked and underpaid, they're scared to say no to clients. They're scared to own a niche because they think they're leaving money on the table, Potential clients who might hire them. But that's really where the beauty of your brand and your reputation is built. By owning one thing and saying no to something else.

Okay, so how do I get started? I mean, let's just. We can pick a random industry, right? What do you want?

Jewelry.

Firefighters. I was gonna say her boyfriend starts. Her boyfriend's a firefighter and he starts fire, which is the weird. I think that's pretty badass. Right? But okay, so he's owning it. He's owning it.

Yes.

Firefight. Okay, so by default, a firefighter is badass. But let's start with jewelry, because most jewelry people are really not badass at all. I mean, kind of lame. I mean, hurts. Oh, you heard me say that you guys are sassy.

I didn't think you heard that.

So, okay, so how do you. How do you make like. So Kelsey owns a jewelry company. How do we badass her brand?

Well, jewelry is a product business, and I specialize in service businesses. So, you know, this might not directly apply, but in general, I would say, you know, why are you doing this? Who is it for? Instead of saying, well, anybody who likes this jewelry can buy it. You know what a really good example of that is? Nasty gal. Do you guys know nasty gal? I know that they're like going bankrupt now. No, but she built a hundred million dollar company because she really owned this niche. Look. And even though everybody. People who don't dress the way that she projects her brand, she's known for that look. It's very edgy. She's actually got a very badass, in the classical sense, badass looking brand. But anybody can buy it. But she's okay just pitching to people who like that kind of stuff. So it's just about owning it Instead of saying, whoever wants to buy this, that's cool.

So, okay, so why don't you talk about, why don't we do this with Kelsey's business right now? What's the first step? Like, what she had was Kelsey need to answer for up to badass her brand?

I would look at who has bought her stuff in the past, what they're like, who is most attracted to what she does. And then look at the kind of stuff that they purchase and see if you can hone in and focus your whole brand around that mood message, kind of clientele. So speak to those people specifically. It's all about niching these days because there's so many small businesses online. If you really Own it. Then a client can self identify as your perfect client or customer.

So can you explain that your best. Whatever go.

Yeah, my customer.

Well, I'll give you an example. So we did a financial services company. So, you know, financial wealth management companies, they're a dime a dozen. If you go network anywhere, you. You'll have people's business cards shoved in your hand all the time. So this financial company left Merrill lynch and wanted to work with young professionals. So we said, okay, you need to speak to these young professionals in their language and really own what you're all about. So these were millennials themselves, but the brand that they had was kind of. It was only limping in. It looked kind of corporate. But they were, you know, they weren't really owning their badassery. They were scared to offend people in the financial world. So instead, you know, we renamed them from Moderna Capital to Stash Wealth. We made their newsletter called Financial Cliff notes, get your financial shit together. Which, again, you don't always have to do that. But this was very authentic to their brand. And by really speaking in that language, all of a sudden, millennials were completely attracted to them because they said, these people are speaking right to us, and they're not using this financial jargon that everybo. Else's. They're not scared to offend the financial world because they're speaking to their clientele.

So, Kelsey, for your business, the starting point is who's your best customer? So give us some deets.

So my best customer would be millennial or generation Y? Teacher.

Teacher. Yeah, like a teacher. Are they teaching high school, grade school.

College, like middle school, high school? People who are geared to empower young folks or, you know, folks who are impressionable and their mission in life is to empower them. And I feel like my jewelry lends themselves to that mentality. So for themselves, they like the message of the brand, and then they can use it as gifts and things towards their students and their communities.

So, Pete, what do we do now?

That's really cool. So do you talk directly to teachers in your messaging? I mean, do you use the word teachers? Do you talk about education?

I do not.

Oh, you're half assing your brand. You're not that.

No.

Can you imagine if you were speaking directly to teachers and using verbiage that allowed them to see it and say, oh, my God, this was made for me how much stronger that connection would be. And that's what I'm talking about by. By being a badass enough to say, okay, I want these people to love me. They'll talk about me to their fellow teachers. And it's okay if other people might say, oh, this isn't for me. But I'll tell you, if you really own the teacher niche, people who are not teachers will also see your jewelry and say, oh, that's kind of cool. I'm not a teacher, but I really like that. So you're not necessarily eliminating other clients.

Yeah, yeah.

Badass. Right on the spot.

There you go.

So, okay, so now we pick the niche. What does she do? Do you, Pia. Does she change the name of her jewelry lines to, like, you know, I'm trying to think of something real quick, like third grade special ed.

Well, how do you say, wow, don't.

Isn't that a group? So I went through special ed. What are you talking about? Well, no, I was dyslexic. I had to go through the. They call it special education. Yeah.

Specific to one class. I mean, you're talking about education as a whole. But I mean, Pia, what do you think about creating partnerships with other people in that niche? Like, I know there are tons of different types of stores that teachers shop at for school supplies and stuff like that. Should she be reaching out to those type of people to have, like, a little display, or is that overkill? Like, where's. Where's the starting point?

Yeah, I mean, that's marketing, and I think that that's a couple steps later. I think the next step would be to figure out what your messaging is really centered around. A good question that I like to ask is, what are you against? What are you anti? What do you hate about this? So why are you in this space and what are you railing against? Can you answer that?

I'm basically railing against insecurity, personal insecurity, in hopes of building community. So if you feel empowered and secure with yourself, hopefully you will reach out to the fellow members of your community and support them, if that makes sense.

Okay, so I would start to build a message around, like, go double down on that idea of insecurity and how you don't want, you know, you want to help people become less insecure. And if you start to own a dialogue around that, and you could create all kinds of content around that. But the point is, this is. This is the beginning of an idea that you can own. I would only go into partnerships after you've really honed this message, because marketing, it falls on deaf ears if you don't have something that is noticeable, memorable, and shareable about your message. So until you've really Gotten this part right. It's. To me, it's a waste of time and energy to start putting it out there, get this really, really strong. And then when you make any moves in the market, it'll. It'll resonate.

Now, the way Kelsey, you go about your business, because Christine, where you hosted that, well, you facilitated the event here. How would you say, Kelsey? I mean, I wouldn't. I didn't know it was about security, but the conduit, I thought was like, embracing others. Love. Right. What was your interpretation of Kelsey's business?

I didn't really know what to expect until we did our little jewelry party, which I think is another good tool for you and your clients, because once we got in there, you were so hands on. And you're like, okay, you're gonna make one for yourself or someone in your family, and then you're gonna make one for a stranger. And it makes your customer really think about who. Whose lives they want to touch that day. Who do they want to bring a smile to? And that set her apart from other, you know, brands that I've bought from. You know, does that.

Kelsey does that by showing acceptance of others and love for each other, does that get that person, the recipient of the jewelry, to that next stage of feeling secure?

Yeah. I mean, and that's why I do too, because I hope you're addressing it both at the same time. I think when you are thinking outside of your own perspective, so you're thinking about a stranger who might need to be lifted up. Therefore, you're not thinking about yourself and you're putting yourself in somebody else's, usually less fortunate shoes. And so you're more grateful for what you have. And when you're more grateful, you know, you're not focusing on those things that you are nitpicking about yourself or you're scared about or those. All those fears that keep us, you know, where we are or keep us from hurting or I guess promote us from hurting people out of fear.

So, Pia, I'm about to swear. I'm just saying that now because we have people who listen to show with their children. And I rarely swear, but sometimes I do. Yeah, but, Pia, So whoever's listening with your children, for God's sake, fast forward about 30 seconds. Pia, you know, if Kelsey's an ambassador brand, she's not gonna say, like, you know, be fucking accepting of people. Like, that's not her. So how do you badass a brand like hers now?

So, like I'm saying, the badassness comes from doubling down on this specific idea and going all the way with it. So it sounds like you had a really great event and that was really successful. How can you take that experience and bring it online throughout all of your brand and marketing materials so that anybody who interacts with your brand has a similar experience? And if you own this idea, for example, we're going with it insecurity and how you're helping people become more secure. And you're using the idea of people thinking about how they can help others when they're buying something for themselves. You know, create. How can you create tons of content in many different mediums around just that idea? Which is. Which is one very simple idea. But it could be explored in so many different ways. And the more you build content and ideas around it, the brand itself will actually form out of that. Because a brand is not just a static thing. It's something that evolves over time with the. With the content and things that you create with it. But that would be badassing it, because that has legs that can grow exponentially.

Yeah. So your point in badassery is just finding a, you know, your copyright format and vernacular that you use consistently throughout all formats.

Yeah.

I mean, I'll give you an example. I agree. Badass is everywhere now, which I guess is a good thing. I mean, when I started saying it a few years ago, people were visibly offended at some points. And that was okay. I really liked that. But what it also did was at least a couple times a week, people send me photos of the word badass somewhere that they see it on a shirt, on a sign, you know, graffiti, whatever it is, they send it to me because they think of me when they see the word badass. That's the powerful brand connection. So for you, if you could really own this idea of insecurity or building security in kids or whatever it is, if you build that so strongly, you will have people in the world see things about it and send them to you because they thought of you. And that connection shows that you built a badass brand.

Bingo. Can you be a part time badass? I mean, Kelsey owns her business. Well, her business owns business. Yeah, I mean, like. But seriously, she does have a part time business. Unless. Unless when you're working here, you're really working on your business. How does she. Can you do that on part time or you got to be all in all the time for this to work?

Well, I mean, when I'm helping, you know, small service businesses build their brands, I'm. I require them to be full time because that's doubling down. But. But I would never suggest you leave Mike. Of course. So I would say, you know, it just might take a little bit longer.

And what about that kind of leads to a question, working for someone else. Like maybe some people here don't have their own company. Most of them do, but some don't. Should you be working for a badass? And how do you find the right badass to work for?

Well, that's definitely not my area of expertise because I refuse to work for anyone. Always have, always will. But yeah, if you're a serious badass, you probably want to work for yourself. I mean, I would assume that's a good point.

I was just trying to recover. So you don't quite Kelsey. But now like every.

There's no gray area.

There is no gray.

Sorry.

Can you badass economically? I mean, the cost to run ads and online marketing, all this stuff, I understand the basics. We're getting down, we're picking a client, we're, we're identifying ourselves, we're making sure it's all congruent, but we gotta get the word out. It sounds expensive.

Well, I'll tell you, we badassed our brand when we were $40,000 in debt and without social media, without paying for advertising, and strictly through word of mouth by educating my network. We did $500,000 in 12 months.

And how did you get your network to begin with? Where did that come from?

So I spent the first three years of my business networking myself into debt because I was networking all the time, so I met lots of people. But I was obviously not a very badass brand, not very clear would have worked for anyone. We were kind of an agency model. So I'll do anything for anyone who will pay. And that landed us in debt. And when we, when we used these strategies and we got really super specific about how we work, who we work for, the pricing, all of that, all of a sudden it was really easy to send us clients. So I had all these people who liked me and as soon as I educated them and said, look, this is all we do, one to three person service businesses. We brand the entire thing in one to three days. That's it. I mean, it was a simple referral and it was very powerful. And I've done it to so many people. I mean, I don't actually train people on paying for advertising. I do, which with digital content creation, because I think that's another powerful element of this. But that doesn't cost money, that costs time. And it builds your skills because the process of writing helps you hone your message even more.

Do you help with copywriting for your clients?

We do all the copywriting in house when we build the brand and then we educate them on how to write content moving forward. So write articles. But yeah, we take over all the messaging.

I got to hear about profit. I mean by being this, now this focus, does it bring more profitability to your company or is that something that's gotta be put shelved?

Yeah, absolutely. So I mean these days we're doing our one day brand ups for as of the taping of the show for $15,000 and our two days for $20,000. So that gives us, you know, a healthy income in about 25% of our time. And the rest of it we get to use to build the value of our brand, build our skills, maybe take on additional client or two and increase the amount of money that we're bringing in. But essentially we started those days at $3,000. And because we continued to hone our process and get better at it, stayed in our niche and just continually increased the value of what we were offering, we just kept increasing the price. So we just kept increasing the value of ourselves on the market. So I have found that niching and being super specific in a process that you replicate over and over again is the fastest way to increase your expertise and your reputation in the market. And that increases your price and that increases your profitability.

Yeah, for sure. Okay, so your profits increase. What about your clients who go through this when they become more narrow in their focus, narrow down products, make sure they're congruent with, with who they are. Do you see that consistently bring up their profits too?

Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm usually helping people first get out of the mindset that it's easier to get a client when you're cheaper. I mean, that's just not true. In fact, you're just accessing different kinds of clients and people who don't pay usually are harder clients to begin with, at least in my experience. But like I'll give you an example, we rebranded a photographer like a few months ago and he was in that mindset. So, you know, nobody will pay more than a thousand dollars for a shoot. And you know, I told him, you, the quality of your work is very, very professional. He has network TV experience. I said, you're literally not accessing the kinds of clients that need your work. So let's move your prices up to 3, 5 and $8,000 for a shoot and reposition you as just for Thought Leader. I mean, he got three clients. He made what, five, $11,000 in the first month doing that. That was more than he had made in the previous six months because he was accessing clients that not just were willing to pay $5,000 for a thought Leader shoot, but they want to pay $5,000. They don't want a cheap photographer. They want someone who's very high level. And that's what his prices were communicating, plus his specialty. I mean, the whole package communicated. I know what I'm doing. I have a process and I'm really good at. And it, it.

So, okay, so your price needs to communicate your badasseriness, sis, that's definitely a.

Part of it, yes.

Are you charging enough, Kel, with your jewelry?

No.

I mean it's, they're giving it away. Yeah, but, but the same. Well, now I'm looking at Kelsey's brand, but you know, she's reaching out to. If teachers are her conduit. Sadly, teachers don't make much money. I mean, and that's. I know it's a generalization and I won't talk about special ed because you'll freak out on me, but I'm just saying those teachers may make a little bit more if they have a specialty, but, but can they afford to pay more? I don't know. Pete, what do you think about that? How would you increase prices in a jewelry business like hers where she's doing so much good for so many people and maybe a community that isn't inherently a wealthy one?

Sure. Well, in a service business where you are trying to help a community that doesn't have as much money, it doesn't mean that your profit has to suffer. It just means that your process has to get tighter. You have to find ways to save on time and only use your time for the most high value work that you can do. So any way that you can create systems so that, you know, things that are replicated over and over again don't require time. That's how I would do it for a service business, for a product business. I think it has more to do with, I mean, just because teachers aren't paid as well doesn't mean that they don't have a desire to buy nice things. Everybody likes to buy nice things, whatever that might be. And actually they might value the contribution more if they paid more. And obviously they would be making a bigger contribution if there's, there's this non profit element to it. So I, I don't, I don't think that's ever a limitation.

Mrs. Morris, my third grade teacher did not want to spend money on jewelry, clothing. She come in, it was like a musty smell.

Oh, boy.

Her clothing. You ever have a teacher like that?

Yes. Mine was a gym teacher, though, so it was kind of.

Oh, that's even worse.

It was horrific.

Male or female?

Female.

And she smelled musty.

Like musty paired with BO it was.

Oh, my God.

Smell only to her.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

So, Pia, I have a question for sure. As far as switching into a niche industry, if I'm like a service based business and I have the same clients that I'm dealing with on a monthly basis, I obviously understand honing more in on a specific niche going forward, but what about the current clients that I have, and they may not necessarily be right for me? How do I kind of weed them out while keeping the peace? Because I don't. Because what if I don't want them to go online and give me bad reviews or anything? Like, I don't want any bad blood. But how do I weed them out?

Just do it. All right, I'm sorry, what's the answer?

Yeah, I think it's. I think you always want to keep integrity and do what's. What's best for the clients and for your and for yourself, you know, so when we had to weed out our clients, we actually just. We just raised the prices. Because there was a certain price point, especially in the beginning, where I was willing to keep working with them for a little while while I bridged the gap of going into my niche. But you'd be surprised how easily people just say, thanks, but no thanks. When you raise your prices above what they want to pay, I think that's kind of the kindest way to do it.

How do you stay in that badass mindset? I mean, because, hey, Christina does. Exactly. You said she decides to increase the prices. And the first customer says, what the hell are you doing to me? And they walk away. And the next person comes to door says, you're too expensive. I'm sure that could weaken your mindset and say, this isn't working. How do you keep in that badass mindset?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, I didn't start at $15,000 for a day, started at 3, and very quickly raised our prices as the demand showed that we saw that there was demand. But it's really, I mean, all of my focus has always been on just how do I do this better? How do I increase the value, how do I increase my skill set? You know, how can I learn more and more and more. So the focus of my energy has always been on increasing the value that I provide. And I think that that is with integrity for my clients. I want to do, I mean, I wrote a book in major part just to learn how the self publishing process went so I could turn around and help my clients with that and advise them on that if that's what they needed. And that not, you know, when you focus there, you're not so focused on the, oh, what if this is, you know, they're saying, no, I think you, you attract the kind of energy that you're putting out.

That is cool. Maybe that's the spot to end it on because we gotta get going. Pia, I want. Before you go, though, I want to talk about your book. Tell me just a brief summary of what badass your brand is as a book and where people can pick it up.

Sure. Badass your brand is our philosophy and strategy on how we do this for small service businesses. So anybody who's selling their expertise, tired of working too hard, doesn't know how to get clients, doesn't know how to close clients, doing a lot of free work, free strategy sessions, writing proposals, waiting to hear back, all of that. This cuts through the crap, gives you very clear steps and ways to reposition yourself so that you are coming from a place of power and value and doing what you love and doing it really well and getting paid well for it, and you're actually serving your clients at a much higher level when there's abundance in your business. And yeah, I outline it very clearly with six steps. And then I show how we did in our business and I show case studies because I think stories are the best way to explain these steps.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah, for sure.

And also, did I hear possibly, maybe just in a long shot, chance that you might be on television soon talking about this?

Yeah, I'm gonna be on MSNBC next week. Thank you, Mike.

Congratulations.

Congratulations to you.

So thank you so much.

This is airing May 1st, I believe.

Yeah.

So here's what you got to do. Listener hop on MSNBC's website, which is, I think, open forum, and just type in Pia Silva and you'll find her interview. Make sure you give us a shout out. Say when they like, when they say, tell us about your book. Like my book. You should hear the Private first podcast. That's amazing. Pia, thanks for coming on the show.

Definitely.

Thank you, Pia, thank you so much.

That was really fun.

It was awesome. All right, I need a punch. There you go. There we go. So here's what we're gonna do. Now, in a second, we're gonna have a discussion around what we learned from Pia. I saw lots of copious notes being taken, and let's see what else we're gonna do. We're talking about our corporate partners, and then we have to hook people in by saying there's a recap coming. So there's the hook. There's gonna be a recap coming. Here's our corporate partners. Are you hooked? All right, tell me who the corporate partners are.

I'll announce them. You go.

Okay.

All right, nextiva.

Hold on. I gotta get some sound effect that goes with this. Okay. I love nextiva. Do we have an issue with the phone, though? I heard Adela this morning, like, saying we didn't get an order. What happened? I love nextiva. They not sent a phone.

Yeah, we ordered two, and they sent one. And then now when we called to figure out where the other one is, they don't even have the order for the one or any of them.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, but yet we got one, so.

But they're addressing it.

Yeah, of course they're addressing it. Sexy.

Yeah. I'm so disappointed. I love nextiva.

They're wonderful.

This morning is the first time I've ever had an experience where something went amiss.

Yeah, but they're on it.

But they're on it. And our phones are awesome. They're a great company. I'm sorry. This is the brutal reality. We made an order and they lost it. Now, who ordered it? Was it Ron? Oh, is it you?

You know what? Ron did order a phone, though, but his camera.

But it was.

The timing was the same thing, so we thought it was those two. We thought were the two that were ordered together. Came together, but one happened to be.

Ron's because it was a higher tech one, and I was like, oh, this is a fancy schmancy new Ron.

What's with Ron?

I know. He was the whip on you.

He's like, yeah, we can't spend money. He's like, oh, I just bought, like, this expensive video phone with a massage.

It has this massage hand that comes out.

Hand comes over. No wonder.

Oh, Fun Box.

Fund box. It's a cash flow accelerator.

True.

Do you ever. People besides us not pay your invoices, like, for the jewelry?

Nope.

Oh, so you don't need Fun Box if they didn't pay?

Knock on wood.

Yeah, knock on wood. You know, this table is from my college days. Oh, yeah. Maybe don't want to knock on it. No. It's all beer stains and stuff. And you see the quarter marks? Like, we play quarters on this all the time. This was at Virginia Tech.

Yeah, I always. Clorox.

It's not anything.

We just drink beer on the side. My eye. Clorox everything.

Anyway, so Fund Box is a cash flow accelerator. When you have an invoice due, they. And it's not being paid, they'll send the money to you.

Nice.

You know why we have these little breaks as we're talking about our sponsors? Because it's a hook. Now, if you're a listener, you're like, what are they gonna be talking about? Mike's disgusting table from college. Yeah. So you have to keep listening. That's how we roll here. Okay, give me another.

That's the real juicy stuff.

Zero.

Zero's our hero. It's accounting software. We used them for two years. Now we're over with QuickBooks because Deborah, our accountant, our bookkeeper, said she only supports QuickBooks and she wasn't willing to be trained on zero. Now, here's the deal. Deborah's not listening to the show. She's a little bit older. And so we're like, deborah. We love Deborah. So she's a little curmudgy, too. So, like, whatever she is.

She does.

Not listen to this.

I don't say that she's old. Say that she's, like, old school. I wouldn't comment, like, on her age.

She's old school.

Yes.

Old school.

Yeah.

And if. As long as I don't say her.

Full name, it's just a number anyway.

No one knows. I just know it's Deborah. If I said Deborah Court, right, They'd be like, oh, my God, you just said it. Classic joke. That's a classic joke. No, she's awesome. So she wanted to go back to QuickBooks. We did it. QuickBooks is great. Zero is a hero, though. It's built from the cloud up. Love that software. I kind of wish we were still using it.

So what about Receipt Bank?

You want to talk about them?

Sure. I'm just getting tired of talking Receipt Bank.

Sorry.

Receipt bank is an excellent way to track your expenses so you can scan it right into your system. It'll match up with your software. Accounting software. So, like, we use a QuickBooks and it'll pair instantly with your QuickBooks.

Yeah. You nailed it. It. And you don't use it here. You just. Right. You don't need it. We should get for you, too. No, I guess the only purchases you make are all online. So you make a Purchase online, you don't need it. But when you're at a store or you're out for a meeting, whatever, and you need to get. You get a receipt, you scan in with receipt bank.

Yes.

So you don't need it. Do you have it? You don't have it either, do you?

I don't. You and Ron.

Okay. Okay. Me and Ron.

Do I need it?

Yeah. Yeah. It's so much easier so fast.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. Fundera.

Last one, Fundera. I don't know why I put that. Laugh. Does laughter make you laugh?

Yeah.

Isn't it funny?

Have you ever done laughter yoga?

No.

It's the funniest thing.

What's laughter yoga?

It's like somebody starts laughing and then it creates that ripple effect, but it's actually hilarious. And then you just basically laugh for 30 minutes or however long it is. But it's a. It's, you know, releases endorphins. It's really. Yeah.

So you've done laughter yoga?

Yeah.

Who's the person that starts laughing? Just is there. But it's so fake. He's working. It's kind of working. That was funny. It wasn't the laugh. It was the wiggle you did with it. The way you were kind of marching. You're a marching laughter person. There's not many people. When you laugh naturally, do you start marching like that or no, I don't think so.

I'm sure I do some kind of weird movement.

We'll have to start paying work.

That was very funny, actually. That was very funny. So we were talking about Fundera.

Yes, yes.

They're a fun company, too. Oh, could you stop hitting your head on the microphone?

I'm not reading the thing. It's not on purpose. Sorry.

So Fundera is a loan provider. They don't provide the loans themselves. They search out the loans for you, they find the loan provider, and they will then come back to you and say, here's the best loan source, plus the reasoning behind it. But they'll. You'll have a selection of like 3 to 10 to 20, and they walk you through it. So they're great. Is that all our sponsors?

That's all.

Okay, there we go. Now let's get into what we learned. We're kind of getting off the rails today because I'm having too much fun, you know?

That's good. It's the laughter yoga.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

You're funny. Lantern yoga. So, Christina. Oh, wait, wait, wait.

So what'd you learn?

So what did you learn today?

My favorite thing that Pia said was marketing falls on deaf ears unless you have something noticeable, memorable, and shareable. Blast you.

Oh, that was yours. That was yours.

Sorry. But no, I mean, it ties into the whole thing. You have to believe in yourself. You have to believe in your brand. You have to stick to what you believe in and share it with the world. The world will reciprocate, you know.

Okay, I'm with you, Kelsey. You need time.

No, it's good. There's multiple things that I took away from it.

All right.

I think having your messaging speak in a language that attracts your ideal client.

Love that.

Yeah. And how she gave the example for the one for the millennials. I never really thought of it that way. In terms of the vernacular you use and what they'll respond to. I like the.

I guess she kind of coached you right on the spot. And I was like, oh, I love.

How she did that.

Yeah. The teacher. My big takeaway is the noticeable, memorable, shareable. I think a lot of people get the noticeable right by doing something wacky or goofy, and we notice, but then it's not memorable, nor is it something you necessarily share. I think there's a missing component sometimes, but if you nail all three, if you're noticeable, memorable, and shareable, I think the word gets out about you. It's not easier to get a client when you're cheaper. She said, huh. That's a great point. Modify the process to be faster. That was the big challenge. Like, oh, she won't be able to fix this one if your clients don't have the money because of the set of clients they are. That was on purpose. You're punching the microphone now I'm a mess. Is to modify the process to be faster, and that's where you'll make your money. And the last takeaway I just put. I think we need to do a shout out to teachers, but specifically musty teachers.

Of course.

I don't think we need to do a shout out to them.

No, just listen. Thank you.

No, I think it should be like a public service announcement. Please take a shower and wash your clothes.

Yeah, I think it was. Yeah. Is that clothing thing or is that a shower thing?

Musty, I think, is a clothing thing.

Yeah, that's what I think. Like, my boss, Bo, is definitely Bo's body. I got you. I got you.

So thank you to all of our teachers out there.

Oh, I'm just a pain in the ass. So, hey, we wanna know what you learned today too. Did you have a musty teacher back in third grade who was It. It don't put their full name up there. Like, you know, just put their first name. But we do need to know, like, Deborah Court, right? Oh, my God. She's not musty at all. That was offensive. That was really, really offensive.

You took it over the line.

She's old school. I'm sorry. God, you're out of control.

You are.

Here's what I do for a living. I send love and appreciation. Everyone's accepted, especially musty Debbie Courtright. I mean, that was nasty of you.

I was just mocking you for saying.

Her f. I know you were. That's a bad guy.

Oh, my goodness. Please leave us a comment. Any comment you want, any rating you want on itunes, stitcher, any podcaster you use, and of course, profit first podcast.com comment on the post. Tell us what you think. Tell us if you like Mike's hair, whatever you're feeling.

Losing it.

No, you're not, James.

That's what I wanted to hear. Thank you. No, in the back.

No, you're not.

Okay, okay.

You're not.

Get rid of that insecurity, Mike.

I know. I'm vain. I'm vain.

We all are.

Oh, it's a quick story. Talking about vain, do you know who wrote the song I'm so Vain?

Yeah.

Carly Simon.

Simon. I. May I. Do you know my book? I dedicated the pumpkin plan to her. If you open the book, the pumpkin plan, it says, to Carly Simon. You probably think this is a book. This book is about you, don't you? Don't you?

Yeah. I like how the. It used to be the contact.

Yeah.

For your website was Carly Simon.

Yes.

Yeah.

Is it no longer on the website? I thought Carly Simon stole our contact.

No, it's. No, it's me now.

Oh. It's going back to Carly. So I mail. So I. I got a mail. So Carly Simon has a store in Long Island. Really? Yep. So I mailed her a copy of the book, saying, like, I think you just get a kick out of this. It's so funny. Rejected. It arrived and returned.

Interesting.

So now I have a vendetta against Carly Simon. Isn't that funny?

But yet you're going to reassign your contact.

I love her so much. Oh, my goodness.

Here's one more thing I love. It's called Private first professionals dot com.

Praise it.

But you should. Why was that?

Praise it.

Praise glory.

You should be going there, too. It's real simple. Simple. Go to profitfirstprofessionals.com. why? To drive profitability. Listen, if you come, if you badass your brand, you'll be more profitable. There's other ways to do it, too. By working with a profit first professional themselves. So go to proffersprofessionals.com, click on the find button, we'll hook you up, and we'll drive profit in your business to, like, you know, levels you ever had before. Okay? Now let's get out of here.

Oh, I'm turning it up.

John Lee Dumas next week.

Bye.

Oh, do you want to say something else?

Nope.

All right.

Sam.