No BS Mastery Podcast

When Chanaya Hancock joined No BS Mastery, she had projects that seemed to last forever and no predictable way to bring in new clients. Most of her business came through referrals, which meant work arrived when it arrived, and she had very little control over the flow.

She was also deeply skeptical about joining a group program. Chanaya didn’t consider herself a community person, disliked social media, and wasn’t excited about posting in a forum or spending time on video calls with strangers. The community aspect almost stopped her from joining entirely.

When Shauna Matkovich joined No BS Mastery, she had already narrowed down what she wanted to do and who she wanted to help. But she was still taking on lots of different projects and struggling to turn her large network, speaking, podcast, and mailing list into the kind of work she actually wanted.

Shauna also has one of the most challenging sales environments of anyone I’ve worked with. She operates in a small, fiercely competitive industry where her prospects are often direct competitors, referrals can be difficult, and buying decisions involve multiple people, co...

When Marc Scheff joined No BS Mastery, his business was going, but it wasn’t predictable. He had one-on-one coaching clients, an artist community, and a retreat in the works, but he couldn’t clearly explain where his next clients were going to come from.

Marc had tried going hard on social media, making educational videos, funny videos, and all kinds of different content. Some of it worked, but none of it felt quite right. As he put it, he always felt like he was wearing somebody else’s clothes.

In t...

When Wes Wheless joined No BS Mastery, his pipeline had slowed down; he had turned most of his attention toward writing his book, and he was wondering whether he had already exhausted all the warm leads in his network.

He had successfully sold two-week sprints, but believed he had hit a $3,000 price ceiling. He was also spending a lot of time on free sales calls that went nowhere. Then, during the Bootcamp, he created and sold his first Lead Product™ before the event had even ended.

In this conversation, We...

When Caitlin Lang first joined No BS Mastery nearly three years ago, a long-term retainer had ended, the market had changed, and she had gone months without work. She was ready to try something different, even if niching down and changing her entire way of working felt scary.

Caitlin decided to focus exclusively on branding and websites for women coaches, consultants, and solopreneurs. Once she could clearly explain who she served, referrals started coming in quickly. She also replaced open-ended retainers with a tightly scheduled intensive model that allows her to complete entire branding...

Tam Smith started her business in 2020, but every couple of years, she found herself running into the same problem: saying yes to everything, spreading herself too thin, and working all the time.

She realized she had been chasing someone else’s definition of success. Instead of building the biggest team or the loudest business, Tam wanted something small, tight, profitable, and sustainable. She wanted to do less, but do it better.

In this conversation, Tam shares how moving away from retainers and toward a project-based intensive model gave her mo...

Karen Taylor knew why she wanted to build her business. What she didn’t have was the structure to turn that purpose into something real.

She had taken the courses, joined the communities, and gathered plenty of information. But she still felt stuck—and wondered whether she had waited too long to make it work.

In this conversation, Karen shares how she went from feeling like she had an “expensive side hustle” to building a business with a financial target, a roadmap, a paid first step, and an offer designed...

Beverly Cornell started her business because she wanted freedom. Instead, she eventually found herself overworked, saying yes to everything, and letting her clients design the business for her.

In this conversation, Beverly shares the journey from that version of her business to the one she has today. One that is built around her strengths, her personality, her visibility, and a whole lot more intention.

We talk about what it means to stop carrying around everyone else’s “shoulds,” become more comfortable being seen, and build profitable systems before building a team.

Beverly Cornel...

All summer, I’ve been talking about one idea: that simplicity and focus are not optional.

Simplicity and focus are the harder, but better, choice and the fastest path to a profitable, sustainable expert business. And they only get more relevant as your business grows.

If you want a business where you are not constantly feeling behind and overwhelmed, and where your success isn’t just in your bottom line, but how you live your life, you have to be able to do three things. You have to attract the...

We live in a world with more business advice than ever before. Books, podcasts, courses, newsletters, social media. There's no shortage of information! So why do so many smart business owners still feel stuck?

In this episode, I argue that the problem usually isn't a lack of information. It's that we're often solving the wrong problem. We all filter advice through our own experiences, insecurities, and assumptions, which can lead us to focus on things that feel productive but don't actually move the business forward.

I share stories from my own business (including a...

We hear so much about content marketing these days that it's easy to believe it's the only path to growing an expert business. 

But every time I ask a room full of business owners where their clients actually come from, the answer is almost always the same: referrals and personal connections.

I believe we've become too focused on creating content and not focused enough on building relationships. Don't get me wrong. I love content. It's been a huge part of growing my business. But content takes time to compound, and most experts need clients l...

Everything we knew about getting found on search engines has been upended by AI. It’s no longer enough to have a great SEO strategy to help people find you online. ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity –– they need to see you too.

Implementing GEO (generative engine optimization) is essential for getting your business surfaced and recommended by AI tools. 

Can you optimize being found by AI and still keep your humanness and authentic voice?

Today’s guest has gone all-in on becoming an expert in doing just that...

The experts I know who are the most profitable, the most referable, and the most confident in their work have all done this. They picked a focus, they got really good at it, and they stuck with it long enough for it to compound and build a reputation on it.

That’s it. That’s the secret sauce.

Today I want to talk about what that actually looks like in practice by sharing an example from my own business that will make this click in a way that all the...

“I just want to get it right the first time.”

I cannot tell you how many times someone has reached out to me for branding services when they don’t even have a business yet. They don’t want to make mistakes. They want everything to be perfect right out of the gate.

And, yeah, don’t we all? It’s hard and scary to put something out there that you don’t feel is finished or tested. It can feel like setting yourself up for failure, and most humans are alw...

Successful business owners have to do the same things over and over, tweaking and refining as they go, until they have a clear, repeatable process that works.

Issue is most entrepreneurs aren’t really wired to do the same things over and over again. We tend to be novelty seekers and risk takers, people who chase ideas and get inspired by new possibilities.

So if you find yourself jumping from idea to idea before anything really has a chance to stick and start working, you’re not alone and you...

Everybody wants more ease and less overwhelm in their business.

So why do so many of us end up creating businesses that are exhausting to run?

In this episode, I'm kicking off a special summer series (“The Future is Focus) by sharing one of the biggest lessons I've learned in 15 years of entrepreneurship: the path to more profit, freedom, and clarity isn't doing more — it's simplifying.

I share how I went from running an increasingly complicated business to stripping everything down and discovering that saying no to most opportunities actually created more grow...

I’m delighted to have today’s guest back on the podcast. When we last heard from Kris Byers, he told us about the incredible turnaround and evolution of his business since implementing the No BS Model. In eighteen months, he went from scared of investing in joining the program to quadrupling his income – with a third of the clients! 

I wanted to check back in with Kris because since that episode, he’s won awards, bagged some really big clients, and run incredible projects. You'll want to hear about how he handled working with bigg...

We’ve all been there. You’re sitting across from someone you hope will hire you, there’s the potential for real money, and they ask you to do what they think is just a little bit of work on spec for free. Not to mention they want you to submit a proposal before they commit.

You might have said okay and done that work, submitted that proposal, and crossed your fingers. Maybe you booked that client in the end, maybe you didn’t. But you probably didn’t feel great about it either way.

Most people join a program like No BS Mastery for the content. They want the tactics, the frameworks, the method, the tools, the software. And we absolutely deliver on that.

What people don’t always realize they need is community. 

Today, I want to share some student feedback and my own experiences that prove that our community is part of the program for a reason and it’s a key piece of building momentum for our students.

Tune into this episode to hear:

You know that moment when things finally click?

When the sales conversations stop feeling awkward.  When people instantly “get” what you do. When clients start showing up before you even feel fully ready. 

That’s what’s been happening inside my current No BS Mastery cohort, and honestly, I’m still fired up about it. And the crazy thing is that we are just five weeks into this program! 

So in this episode, I’m breaking down why this is happening — and why it’s not luck, hustle, or “natural sales talent.”

Tune into...

One of my star students, Emily Wilkins, joined me on the show a  while back, to talk about how niching down blew up her business in the best way.

She’s back today for another candid behind-the-scenes chat about where her business is now after several years of implementing the No BS Model. We’re digging into different ways she’s iterated her offerings within the model, what worked well, what "kind of" worked, and ideas that did not pan out at all. 

I know you’re going to learn so m...

These past few weeks, I’ve been talking about the pros and cons of different business models that are common for expert-based businesses. I’ve tried lots of different models, so I know firsthand the challenges of trying to make a business work with a model that may or may not fit with your business goals.

We’ve gone over running a business with a team and a business selling low-ticket digital products. Today, I’m digging into the final model for expert-based business owners, which I’m obviously a big fan of, the No BS Mode...

In this week's episode of No BS Mastery, I'm pulling back the curtain on the "passive income digital product" dream — the good, the messy, and the stuff nobody warns you about.

Because it’s a business model that I hear a lot of people gravitating towards when they’re struggling financially: the one to many model. It might be a digital product or a course, and even though those can be very different to implement, the basic principles and pitfalls are similar. 

I've sold digital products ranging from $100 to $30,000+. I've done the fun...

At some point, you look at your workload and think: “I just need help.” 

Here’s the truth most people won’t tell you: Hiring employees doesn’t automatically give you more freedom or more profit. In fact, if you don’t fully understand the business model you’re stepping into, it can do the exact opposite.

No one business model is right for everyone and every business model has its benefits and drawbacks. I’ve seen way too many small business owners dip their toes into a bunch of different business models without really thinking through...

I talk all the time about the power of using the Lead Product process instead of writing free proposals.

But what if someone is ready to hire you right from the get-go, should you skip the LP? Wouldn’t doing the LP slow down the whole process and even put you at risk of losing the client?

All this month, I’ve been answering some of the most common questions I got during my recent three-day bootcamp. And this one is a genuine dilemma. Why would you steer someone who’...

Predictable income. Recurring revenue. Long-term client relationships. These are the reasons why retainer clients seem so appealing. Who wants to start from zero every month when you could have a committed client?

But the truth is retainer clients don’t actually provide, let alone ensure, financial stability. They might actually keep you from having the kind of business and freedom you really want.

In this episode, I talk about why retainers seem so appealing, and how they’re actually holding you back. 

Tune into this...

What do I do when a client keeps changing their mind? 

What do I do when we're halfway through a project and they want to add five more things? 

What do I do when I present a price to a prospect and they get sticker shock and start trying negotiating with me or taking things out?

These were the kinds of questions I heard in the Q & A sessions during a recent 3-day workshop. And while I can and did give advice on what to...

When people hear about the No BS business model for the first time, a lot of times their immediate reaction is, “Sounds great, but that would never work for me, my clients, my industry…”

Aga Siuda is proof that anyone can make the No BS model work. And in this conversation, she shared how she effectively applied the model with nonprofit clients — with typical RFP-heavy requirements and layers of decision-making processes that result in delays and long project timelines — with incredible results. 

Aga Siuda is a nonprofit branding and marketing e...

Everyone is talking about AI all the time, but a lot of people are still unsure about how to use it and how to make it really work for them.

Which is why I invited Erika Stanley back to the show. She is one of my star-students-turned- incredible-resource and coach within the No BS program, and she is our resident AI expert. She built an incredible tool for us that we’re rolling out in our programs as we speak. 

Erika is so good at taking the hot air out...

This episode perfectly captures something I think a lot about: what does it actually look like to build a business that supports your life?

My guest, Lydia Savramis, is someone who truly embodies that.

Lydia didn’t start out in marketing or online business at all. She was running an orthotics practice, seeing patients all day, when she started a podcast as a creative outlet back when podcasts were still a pretty new thing. That little experiment ended up opening the door to a completely different career.

But what I lo...

All month, I’ve been taking you behind the scenes of my new program, No BS Mastery that helps you scale your expert-led business without hiring a team or burning out.

In this episode, I’m talking about the thing that actually determines whether you get results or not. It’s not the content, or the strategy. It’s not even the tools. It’s the support structure.

I’ve been coaching for over a decade now. I’ve watched hundreds of brilliant, capable, action-taking experts join programs and still struggle...

People fail because they get stuck. 

They get stuck on implementation. They can’t figure out their messaging. They overthink their pricing. They spin their wheels, convince themselves they need to figure it out on their own and that it has to be perfect before they take action. And then they don’t move forward.

Last week, I gave you a breakdown of the new program I’m launching on March 24th. This week, I want to do a deeper dive on one piece that I mentioned, which is the too...

It’s official! My new book, Scale Solo, is out in the world! I’m very excited for people to get their hands on it and dig in.

AND… I am also excited to be rebuilding and relaunching my flagship program, No BS Mastery, this month. 

Why would I do this to myself? Isn’t launching and marketing a new book enough work? 

Yes, it’s a lot of work. But it’s also the only thing that makes sense. And I’ll tell you why. Plus, I...

If you want to hit your financial and freedom goals, you can’t just charge more. You also have to change how you deliver.

Today, I’m breaking down Lever Two of the No BS Business Model: decreasing delivery time. This is the missing piece for so many experts who raise their prices but still feel overworked, burnt out, and stuck.

I learned this lesson the hard way. I once generated a quarter of a million dollars in revenue… and still ended up in debt! 

In th...

This episode marks a major milestone and a powerful new chapter.

We have officially rebranded the podcast to No BS Mastery, and in this behind-the-scenes episode, I share exactly why this shift is happening, what it means for you, and how it reflects the evolution of her work over the last decade.

If you’re an expert, consultant, or service-based business owner who wants more freedom, simplicity, and profitability, this episode will give you clarity on where we are headed — and how you can grow with us.

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If you’ve ever known you should be charging more but felt stuck on how to actually get clients to say yes, this episode is for you.

In today’s conversation, I break down Lever One of the No BS Business Model: how to increase the real and perceived value of your offer so premium pricing feels natural, aligned, and ethical. 

This is the first step to closing higher-priced clients without pressure, overpromising, or chasing people who “need to think about it.”

If you’ve calculat...

Most business owners are chasing a revenue goal that sounds good: six figures, $10-20K months. But those numbers are often vague, misleading, and disconnected from the life they actually want to live.

In this episode, I introduce the concept of your Freedom Number: the true amount of revenue your business needs to generate to support your personal life and business without burning out.

This is a foundational concept in the No BS Model and a sneak peek into my upcoming book, Scale Solo. If you’ve ever felt lik...

Wouldn’t it be amazing if prospects actually saw you as the expert you are?

The problem is many small business owners don’t feel like their clients really see, value, and respect that work. 

And this is a problem because not only does does it make it harder to close prospects, it creates all kinds of issues later that lead to projects running way over time and out of scope.

What you’re missing is authority. 

And you don’t ne...

I’ve got a very special guest from all the way on the other side of the globe to talk about how to tell the right story to make your message stick, why storytelling is more important than ever, and how AI can help.

Gabrielle Dolan is a global expert and highly sought-after international keynote speaker and educator on strategic storytelling and real communication. Her clients include the Obama Foundation, Uber, EY, Accenture, VISA, Salesforce, Amazon and Vodafone.

In 2024 she launched the successful podcast Keeping it Real with Jac an...

We all want quality leads in our pipeline. 

But these days, a lot of experts tell me they’re having trouble getting leads. The thing is, I don’t think that’s actually their problem. All the visibility in the world won’t help you if your real issue lies somewhere else. 

In this episode, I break down one of the biggest (and most expensive) mistakes I see smart, talented experts making: chasing more leads when the real issue is that their message, offer, or positioning just isn’t clear enough...