Why Your Highest-Priced Offer Is Probably Your Least Profitable with Pia Silva

Pia Silva: [00:00:00] I really encourage people to invest. I'll invest their marketing time into, a systematically nurturing and building a network of really rich relationships. And then put the authority content on top at first with the intention of using it simply to help people that you actually meet or that are referred to you go down your sales pipeline faster.
Intro: You are listening to the seven-Figure Leap podcast. We're here to leverage rich relationships and smart strategies to take your business to the next level. Here's your host, Dustin Reman.
Dustin: Welcome back to the seven Very Elite podcast. I'm really excited today. We have the perfect guest, uh, for all of you listening.
Dustin: and we're gonna be tackling, one of my favorite topics, which is how do you build a freedom first? Highly profitable business and I'm joined by Pia Silva. [00:01:00] Pia has a new book coming out called Scale Solo, and so that kind of gives you a indication of what we're gonna be talking about today. And I met Pia through an amazing group, that Linas, who has put together called The Rich Relationships Club.
Dustin: And when I found out about her book, I'm like, wow, this is like, Celina's book is one. I'm like, man, I should have wrote this book. I love rich relationships. And this idea of scaling a solo business and scaling with a small team in a way that's highly profitable and is based on what you really want out of your lifestyle, is one of my passions.
Dustin: And so we have a. Bonafide expert on that topic here today. So Pia, thanks so much for being here.
Pia Silva: Oh my gosh, my pleasure, Dustin. Thanks for having me.
Dustin: Yeah, so you host a podcast, the No BS Agency podcast, and with this book, you're really expanding your impact into all forms of expert based solo and small team businesses.
Dustin: So I think one way to kick us off here is to. talk about how you decided this is what's right for you. And I know there's this wake up moment that you talked about in your book, when you realized that sort of the traditional model, especially for agencies, is [00:02:00] broken. So you wanna tell us sort of what's
inspired you to, do this for yourself and start teaching other people about this model?
Pia Silva: Yeah, absolutely. So I'll give you a quick background. Um, I started my agency with my husband Steve, in 2011.
Dustin: Oh, nice.
Pia Silva: And at that time he, he's an artist, um, but also a graphic designer. And he was doing freelance work and I was gigging also. And basically at a certain point I said, you know what? You're not great at managing.
Pia Silva: The clients or like the money and all that, but you're incredibly talented, so why don't I figure that part out? And I, I tell that because I didn't actually know anything about design or branding or anything. I just was like, I'll figure this part out and this way I, you know, we can work together. and that's how we started.
Pia Silva: And over the next three years, I networked my face off and I learned the business by doing it. By meeting other people running similar businesses. So I copied a lot of what they were doing, the way that I pitched, the way that I, you know, ran my projects, my pitch decks, everything was informed by [00:03:00] everyone else that I met.
Pia Silva: And three years into our business, almost to the day we had two employees, we had this studio I'm in right now. We had generated $250,000 that last 12 months, and we were in $40,000 of debt. Oh boy. And at that time, 40,000 was significant because we had no more access to credit and we had no cash. So we were in such dire straits, we were forced to let our employees go, which at the time felt like a huge, just huge failure on my part.
Pia Silva: Yeah. Like, I just felt like, oh, we have to close our business now. And luckily my very creative thinking. Husband was like, oh, we have to close our business. Like we just probably have to do this differently. 'cause we have sold $250,000 with, right. It's not like we don't have happy clients. It's not like we're not good at this.
Pia Silva: And at that moment I'm looking at my options. And we had this offer that we had, we had been secretly selling to people on the DL, called a $3,000 one Day Brand up. And it was something that we made because my business [00:04:00] coach challenged me to do it because. Most people I spoke to didn't have $30,000, and that's what we were trying to pitch.
Pia Silva: So he said, what could you do for $3,000? And I said, well, we could work with someone for a day. Mm-hmm. And so we had been doing that secretly. So at this pivotal moment, I looked at the $3,000 one day and I compared it to the $30,000 projects I was chasing. And I was like. Light bulb moment like, oh my God, this is way better.
Pia Silva: Like, this is so much more profitable. And you know, when I looked at the numbers, I thought, well, if I added it all together to, to deliver on a $30,000 project, you know, over six, eight months, like we're talking at least 30 days of work. If I did 30. $3,000 one days, I'd make $90,000. I mean, that is three times as profitable.
Pia Silva: And as soon as I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. We completely changed everything overnight and we did $500,000 in the next year, just the two of us. Wow. Without any employees. And that was really where it all. That's how it happened.
Dustin: That's it, that's the inflection point. Well, I love that. [00:05:00] Mm hmm. So a product I service, but, and we'll talk more about sort of the, the math and the dynamics behind this.
Dustin: Yeah. But it, I think what that speaks to is it's not just about the top line value of a project or a client. It's like what's the delivery of that? Especially in a service based business, like an agency. it's two sides of a, it's two. Equally and, important sides of the equation, right? So it's not just top line revenue, it's profit.
Dustin: And so yeah. That leads me to like one of your key concepts from the book, this idea of a freedom number. Mm-hmm. And so I'd love to hear your take and, yeah, educate our listeners on like what is a freedom number and why is that so vital and, and why is it different? Like you were just saying from like a revenue number, which is what most people fixate on.
Pia Silva: Yeah, absolutely. Well, continuing with this story, we generated $500,000. but that was us working all the time. cause we were, take, every client that came to us, we were sticking, you know, if I didn't have space, I'd be like, we can get you in on Saturday. 'cause I was so excited. People were [00:06:00] buying all of a sudden it was so like, easy to make money.
Pia Silva: so about like towards the end of that year, I go, you know, this is also not what we signed up for. We're making tons of money, but I also need space and time that was part of this. So that's when I sat down and I went, okay, what do we really need? And I did the math and, and I wasn't skimping, I just
said like, what would be a nice amount of money for personally for us to live our lives?
Pia Silva: Like, what does it cost for us to live? We live in Brooklyn. Yeah, it's not cheap here. And then I said, how much does it cost to run our business? And then this was the year I really understood taxes. So I said, how much do I, how much do I also need to plan for for taxes? Because previous years I didn't think about taxes, and that was a rude awakening.
Pia Silva: So, I added it all up and at the time I realized we need about $240,000 a year to cover all of this. And then I said, okay, well, right now we're selling these one day intensives for $3,000, but. If we could get to a place where [00:07:00] we were selling $10,000 one days and we did two of those a month. And in our process that we've developed since then, like even right now we sell two, two day intensivess for $40,000.
Pia Silva: Wow. We're not. We're not doing all of the work on those two days. We're doing the work ahead of time. Right, right. So it's more like a, like a five or six day project. At the time I thought, well, how can I get the price up to $10,000? I'll probably have to make it more valuable. So it'll be a couple extra days.
Pia Silva: But if we can sell two $10,000 one day Intensivess and spend no more than two weeks a month on it, then we'll generate the 20 k we need. We'll have two weeks available to do all the biz dev, all the authority building, all the networking, and have time for ourselves. And so that's really when the freedom number came about because it made me realize I don't need to feel, 'cause at the time I actually did feel scarcity, even though I was making so much money because I was just making cash and it, I felt like I had to grab it.
Pia Silva: Mm-hmm. So this gave me a plan where I could feel [00:08:00] good about. Just making the money I needed and not just always trying to get more. And that was really the beginning of this whole philosophy.
Dustin: I love it. So it's, and I don't know if there are percentages and proportions and things that people are thinking about their own freedom number, but what I heard there is a conclusion, at least, you know.
Dustin: At that point in your business, it was, sounds like a goal was like half time Yeah. Fulfillment. Half time, not fulfillment. So that's business development. Be able to spend time with your husband that's not working. and,
you know, dealing with the other aspects of business that aren't client facing is that you think 50 50, is that a good guide?
Pia Silva: Yeah, so I actually, I turned this into something I call the fifty twenty five twenty five rule.
Dustin: There you go.
Pia Silva: Alright. and it makes it here. Yes. You're quick. Uh, so basically it's like, and this is what I do with all of my clients. I just say, find your freedom number. What's that revenue number? That includes everything.
Dustin: That's your personal, your business and taxes, your
Pia Silva: personal
Dustin: and taxes, and then your taxes. We don't wanna miss the taxes, which
Pia Silva: would be, you don't wanna miss the taxes. [00:09:00] Significant, significant, know what that top line number is, and then the, the formula states that you must make all of that in 50% of your working hours or less.
Pia Silva: Now, I have some parameters for this. I use a 48 week year, so that you are, I'm the kind of person, like, I love stuffing away a 20 in a pocket when you, you know, when you put 'em away for the spring. Like, I, I like to be conservative because I always end up on top that way. So I say 12 months a year, four weeks a month.
Pia Silva: Two weeks each month is, is the max that you wanna, spend delivering for paid clients to generate that revenue. And then there's, two 25%, and one of those is the minimum amount you need to spend on biz dev. So biz dev is something that a lot of. Solopreneurs especially kind of do when they have time or they do it kind of in the cracks and mm-hmm.
Pia Silva: Client work always takes precedent because a client is paying. So that's really important. And I say you are your most important client, so it is very important that you put aside at [00:10:00] least 25% of your time to do all of the, you know, business development, the marketing, the, the sales, all the stuff that. You know, marketing and sales is the lifeblood of your business.
Pia Silva: Absolutely. Yeah. So you have to really protect that. And then the third, the other 25%, I call it your freedom flex time. Now, this is partially
because we didn't go into business to work all the time, so I want you to build a business with the intention of having a lot of extra time for yourself. but also that is time that you can invest in travel.
Pia Silva: And, you know, Steve and I have gone away for months at a time using this. Or in seasons where you wanna go faster, you can invest it back into your business. Mm-hmm. I wrote my first book in three months without working with any clients because I was reinvesting some of that 25% into the next like level of my authority and business.
Pia Silva: But I have found over the last 12 years that I've been teaching this. Model that this model, like this formula works. [00:11:00] So it's so simple. Yeah. But it works so nicely for anybody selling their expertise as that benchmark to figure out how you should price yourself. And when you put yourself through this formula, you may find, oh, my prices are very different from what it's saying.
Pia Silva: And that's okay. It usually is. But now we have a goal, we have clarity around what we're going for. When I realized $10,000 less than a week. Just two of those. I got there in six months. Mm-hmm. Because I had so much clarity around what the numbers needed to look like, and then it was just, I think of it as like, because I'm in New York, like parallel parking into a spot, you know, like I'm just like, little bit here, little bit there.
Pia Silva: Okay. We got it.
Dustin: I love that. Yeah. It's a very simple but elegant, way to look at things. So Is the way that we unpacked it, the way you would, encourage a listener to unpack it. Like start with the money part and then look at the time part, and then look at how those match or don't match.
Dustin: so that, because you know, based on whatever your current model is, like there's a certain. fulfillment per client. Mm-hmm. [00:12:00] And then there's x number of clients needed to get to the f the, the freedom number. Right? And then I guess that is where the sort of rubber meets the road or adjustments. So, I mean, I guess this gets sort of to the next thing I was gonna ask you about is this two levers.
Dustin: you basically have the revenue from the. And I think something we often overlook is the, uh, specific fulfillment time. Mm-hmm. Per client, to do that. So yeah. And maybe, maybe it's just a recap of the process or the math or if you wanna bring the two levers in. yeah, just thinking about how to like do this,
how do we do this on a one page sitting here af as I'm listening to this podcast, like, Hey, I know, like I wanna make, you know, whatever that number is, 400,000 a year to support the team member I have and the lifestyle I want.
Dustin: And I know. Like how I do services currently. Is it typically the adjustment in the pricing per client? Is that the big lever here?
Pia Silva: Yeah, that's a great question. So, you're reminding me, so remind me at the end, I actually have like an easy to fill in little [00:13:00] calculator that will help you figure this out, that I can give you guys.
Pia Silva: but so basically. we figure out that price point and then we plug it in with your delivery time. You're exactly right. And it's gonna give you those prices. And like I said, oftentimes people will be far from the price that, that they require in order to hit their revenue goal within the 50, 25, 25 rule.
Pia Silva: Mm-hmm. Which is to be expected. because you wouldn't be doing the exercise if, if you were already couldn't have doing your
Dustin: pricing and timing was. Perfectly matched. You'd either, not be making way too much money and not have enough time. Exactly.
Pia Silva: Oh
Dustin: yeah, I gotcha.
Pia Silva: Exactly. So once we do that, that's fine.
Pia Silva: Like I said, once you have a goal, we can go towards it very clearly and, There are two ways to go towards it. There's two levers. So lever number one is to increase the real and perceived value of what you have to offer. And
lever number two is to decrease the delivery time. Those are really the only two things that you can do to get towards that number.
Pia Silva: And you can do one or the other, [00:14:00] but ideally you're doing both. And I think of it a little like, when you're. Like you were made IKEA furniture. Mm-hmm. And they say, don't tighten all the screws at once. You know, you gotta like, tighten over here, tighten over. Like, that's really what this process is. You can continually be tightening each of the bolts, increasing the, the value perceived and real value a little bit here.
Pia Silva: You can decrease the delivery time a little bit. Then you can increase the value more. And it's just that process that's gonna get you from wherever you are. To that freedom number, and I believe anyone can get to any number. It's just a matter of how long it takes. Yeah. It's not a matter of if, it's just when.
Pia Silva: and so I have very specific ways that I teach to do those two levers. the first one is increasing the real and perceived value there. A lot of things you can do, but one clear, step that I really recommend in the expert based business area is to sell the first step with something I call the lead product.
Pia Silva: So, I find that when we write free proposals, it just [00:15:00] starts the whole dynamic off on the wrong foot. And I teach how to sell this specific process, called the lead product, where you have kind of a no-brainer price as the next step. And then you do a deep dive interview with the client. You help them uncover all the things that they probably didn't even realize they needed help with or get more clarity or both.
Pia Silva: And then you write and deliver a brief that outlines all of their opportunities and their plan to get them from where they are to where they wanna go, and that. In and of itself is a valuable product. And that's how I pitch it too. It's like people do this with me without any, like, without even planning to do the other thing.
Pia Silva: Yeah. but at the end, after you've read this proposal, you read this, proposal of what you should do, your plan, and you're so excited and you're seeing the vision and you're getting goosebumps at the very end, I go, oh, by the way, I can just take care of that for you in two days for $40,000. would be amazed at how often, like in our community, our students are often saying, wow, when they came to me, they said their budget was X, [00:16:00] and then after the lp.
Pia Silva: They bought a package that is literally two x and they didn't even mention the old budget because their whole dynamic has shifted because they've increased the real and perceived value of what they're offering now that is so different from the perceived value before you've engaged with someone. Yeah.
Pia Silva: So that's an example of how we, We pull that first lever and then the second lever, we intensify your process. So I have intensified what used to be six, eight month projects down to two days. You don't have to atten, you don't have to be as intense as I am. I know I'm the most intense. but any ways that we can shrink the timeline, get rid of all the.
Pia Silva: You know, the bs. That's really not adding to the value of the delivery itself. Like the admin stuff, the back and forth, the chasing the, the feedback, the revisions, like we can cut out so much of that. And so as you continue to cut down on your process, maybe it's 20%, 40%. I've had [00:17:00] people shrink them from months to a couple of days.
Pia Silva: That's also where the profitability increases. And I like to tell people that because to your point earlier. I think there's so much focus on the revenue. Mm-hmm. And increasing the prices. But what I find is that when I do this analysis of everybody's offers, usually their highest price offers their least profitable.
Pia Silva: Yep. Because when people increase prices, they add so much bulk to. Like justify the price and it ends up being unprofitable. I mean, often I will look at people's offers and say, you are better off just not doing that. One. You are losing money on that one because these other smaller offers are so profitable.
Pia Silva: You should just be spending that time finding more people to buy this. Yeah, so that's a very high level summary of the two ways that we can get to that goal. Revenue and price.
Dustin: That's beautiful. So the lead product sounds like it's getting paid for strategy. Mm-hmm. So it's like you're getting paid for the diagnostic, for setting a vision, for showing a roadmap of what's possible, which then, like you said, makes the [00:18:00] client, not only excited to pay for that lead product, but opens them up to really increasing their budget.
Dustin: And because you've given them that quick win, they really have you, they have the belief in you've. Sat in a sort of a seat of prescription of like, I know what you need, and here it is. so then they can kind of have their freedom, to go deeper than they maybe anticipated they would want to go before they had that first transaction.
Dustin: I love that. So, any. Just quick examples of lead products that you've seen that work really well, like say for, obviously you have some great ones for agencies and that's a lot of your background, but for coaches or consultants, other people listening that are like, man, what would be a good lead product for me?
Dustin: And like, is there a price range that. Qualify as something, as a lead product?
Pia Silva: Yeah, that's a great question. so I actually define the lead product method as this very specific method. So it's actually the same for everybody. Okay. It is a, a deep dive interview. Okay. With a brief at the end, a written brief, and that brief.
Pia Silva: I have a very [00:19:00] specific way that I teach. That it should be written, which has a lot to do with the psychology of getting people on board with ideas, you know, leading with what are the goals? Being super clear about how each recommendation is connected to the goals. Being very specific about the recommendations.
Pia Silva: you know, when people first start doing this, there's a lot of, I call it like first level advice, like mm-hmm. You really need. A cohesive brand. It's like, that's not a recommendation, that's a blog post. Right? So how do you really connect with the, client's actual business and give really valuable advice?
Pia Silva: Because really when you do this well, I mean, so often we hear, about clients like crying through this because they just feel so seen. Seen.
Dustin: I was gonna say, yeah. They feel for the first time, someone Pia Silva: so clear.
Dustin: It's them. You've given them words and then, yes, you've painted a picture of an outcome that's possible for them that maybe they couldn't even describe without your help, right?
Pia Silva: Yes. Yeah. Yes. And you know, I work with people who are excellent at what they do. Yeah. I mean, I attract people who are, you know, [00:20:00] perfectionist excellence types. So I always tell them, you have all the tools to do, like, 'cause when I teach it, I kind of push people off the cliff. I'm like, no, no. Go sell this.
Pia Silva: You don't even need to know what it is. I promise you, you can do it Because you are bringing your strategic thinking to this. I'm giving you the framework and the blueprint of how to run it. So it's most effective how to lead that interview so that at the end of it, you've said almost nothing and their mind are blown and they're like, wow, I feel so clear.
Pia Silva: And you're like, I didn't even say anything, but you asked really good questions. anybody who's really excellent and I know you know what I'm
talking about. What they do is going to be great at helping get that information out of someone. And that's the kind of clarity that they will experience.
Pia Silva: And you won't have to explain why your offer is valuable because they will have experienced that value. Yeah. And that just cannot be, replaced by a free proposal, which is just not gonna get the same level of credibility. Or even like, listen, I'm in branding. I believe in the power of marketing and messaging and [00:21:00] all of that, but no matter how good your copy is on your website, you can't possibly explain the kind of transformative clarity that someone will get when they actually experience it.
Pia Silva: So that's really what we're, what we're working with.
Dustin: Yep. I love that. So we're sort of worked backwards from your business. What are your goals? how much time do you wanna spend in fulfillment? What's the pricing necessary and fulfillment, time to deliver that? And a lead product is a big part of that.
Dustin: And then intensifying the delivery is the other big lever. So if we think about before that, First interaction before you offer them the lead product. let's talk a little bit about marketing. I know you have a passion for marketing and, and so do I. so you're a very systematic thinker, and there's a, there's a process behind everything.
Dustin: So if you think of like no BS marketing, like how do you think about the marketing activities that should fit within these time constraints that will. Allow people to find these clients who are receptive to the lead product and then [00:22:00] ultimately the intensely delivered, service on the other side of that.
Dustin: So yeah. Let's, let's talk a little bit about your marketing philosophy.
Pia Silva: Yeah, absolutely. well, I think that marketing makes sense depending on where you are in business. Yeah. There is different kinds of marketing you should do. I think a big mistake, not that you asked, but I'm gonna say it anyway. A big mistake that people make is jumping into a.
Pia Silva: Authority content marketing. Mm-hmm. Before they've got their, their legs under them. Right. Before they've got their foundation. Not only because when you try, and I've, I've watched people do this struggle with this. Not only when you're trying to write authoritative marketing copy, but you. Don't have like super clarity around your offer and your process and who you work with.
Pia Silva: Like you haven't been doing it long enough. Your authority content's not gonna be very authoritative, right? Mm-hmm. It's gonna be kind of faking it. You're probably gonna be relying on AI a lot for that, and we can tell. and also that takes forever to actually get started Again. As somebody, you have a, a podcast, you have a lot of authority content.
Pia Silva: I also [00:23:00] do. It took a while for it to actually generate cold leads and turn them into clients. And even now, so many of the people that are nurtured by my authority content are people that met me through other people. Yes. Or that I've met. So what I really recommend is building a referral marketing machine first.
Pia Silva: Yeah. And getting that to, because you can build, I mean, I didn't have. Any online. I had no social media when I did the 500,000 that was purely from my network. So you can build a very successful business just with rich relationships as we Yes, absolutely. You know, and we continue to have these successful businesses and we are nurturing rich relationships because it's always gonna be about that.
Pia Silva: So I really encourage people to invest. I'll invest their marketing time into, a systematically nurturing and building a network of really rich relationships. And then put the authority content on top at first with the [00:24:00] intention of using it simply to help people that you actually meet or that are referred to you go down your sales pipeline faster.
Pia Silva: And yes, eventually that authority content may. Also bring in cold leads. But I think that's the disconnect. People think, oh, if I, I make this authority content, then cold people are gonna find me. And I just think, you know, that may happen once in a while, but that's really not how a reliable way to build an expert based business.
Pia Silva: Yes. And by the way, inside our Club Rich Relationships club, how often, I mean one of the best things about it is that when you need to hire someone, you can go in and say, Hey, I'm looking for this and get 10 referrals. That's how the high end premium clients that you are trying to get hired by. That's how they find people.
Pia Silva: They ask their friends. Yes. So I, I think referrals are the best way for experts to get their clients. And you've gotta be out there so that people are, you know, you are top of mind and people are actually able to refer you.
Dustin: I love that. So if someone is, a little shallow in that, area, either [00:25:00] they're not, they know, like what you just said, they're nodding their head vigorously, but they're like, like, how do I do that?
Dustin: any sort of practical tips for like how to start building your network or where do you invest your business development, when that is your goal?
Pia Silva: Yeah, absolutely. I'll give you like the really shortest path. So you always start with your existing network, right? Because you've already got some No.
Pia Silva: Like and trust with them. it's really about being, I mean, you really have to start with making sure, am I clear about who I'm looking for and what my offer is? Am I making it really easy to, for people to refer me? Is it really easy for people to buy from me? Which the lead product helps tremendously with.
Pia Silva: It's another benefit of it. and then. Outside of that, I actually recommend building something I call the one K. So it's the one killer outreach strategy. Mm-hmm. Which is essentially a systematic way of gathering people on a consistent basis so that you are leveraging your time and. Creating and [00:26:00] maintaining deep relationships, nurturing relationships with multiple people at once.
Pia Silva: And these can be all sorts of gatherings. they're incredibly effective and what they do is they give you a way to be in a leadership position. They give you a reason to stay in contact with people and every time you go out. 'cause if you really have no network, the best thing you can do is like. Start going out and meeting people.
Pia Silva: Yep. But when you meet someone that you like or you're like, oh, this would be a great contact, it can be very awkward to think, well what am I gonna say next? Like, oh, let's hop on another call and like talk more. Right. That's so awkward. So instead you have this one ko, you always have something that's on your calendar.
Pia Silva: You can say, oh my gosh, I'm actually getting a group of great business owners together that I think you'd really, benefit from meeting. Why don't you come to that? Even if they can't make it, this is a way to keep in touch. 'cause they'll go, oh, I can't make that. But I'd love to come to the next one.
Pia Silva: Okay, great. And now I have a reason to reach out to you again. So it is, it's an incredibly powerful way to leverage your time to continually [00:27:00] build this network and stay in front of people without having to build all these funnels. Mm-hmm. And yes, there's a manual aspect to this. Mm-hmm. But a handful of really good referral partners can keep your whole business humming.
Dustin: Yes, absolutely, man. I love that. So simple and and doable. And it's all built on really solid, like law of reciprocity, like you're saying. Like just have something to invite people to all the time. And even if they can't come, you've planted the seed of generosity, right? And they're like, they're looking for e even subconsciously a way to help you back.
Dustin: And then if you've got that one-two punch of the presence and the generosity with the specificity. Of them being able to like, oh, P'S the person for this, or Dustin's the person for this. Then when that, Their, their surface area, you know, like intersects with someone looking for that opportunity, they're like, I know exactly who you need to talk to because you have that top of mind presence because you were exactly.
Dustin: 'cause you were giving to start. I love that. So, one more question is gonna sort of like [00:28:00] loop us back to the beginning. Yeah. Let's talk about your book and, and how people can get through calculator and, and those good things. So, a topic that actually comes up a lot in my world, you know, with the seven Figure leap brand, is like.
Dustin: Do I want seven figures? Do I want eight figures? Do I want to build an empire or do I want like a $250,000 business that is always kind of a $250,000 business. Right? And I think being very intentional about what size of business you want and sort of like staying small on purpose is actually the right answer for many, many people.
Dustin: and I think we get. Skewed or jaded by looking out, quote unquote out there on social media and getting envious of people who have larger top line revenues with no recognition of what that is actually doing for their personal wellbeing and their personal lifestyle. So yeah, like what are your thoughts on this idea of, scaling solo?
Dustin: Like the word scale sometimes can be taken to mean. It's always up 10 x 10 x, 10 x. Right. Totally. But like scaling solo, I think in the way that you're using it does not mean [00:29:00] that. So yeah, tell us a little bit about the mindset of being able to answer that question about like, what do you really
want and, how we should be thinking about growth as a solopreneur or someone with a very small team.
Pia Silva: Yeah. Thank you so much for asking this. 'cause it's really the crux of like my mission with this book Yeah. Is to give people permission to stay small on purpose. Love it. And you know, how did I end up with two employees three
years into my business? I read E-Myth, which told me, right. Shamed me. Because it said, oh, you don't have employees be a technic, then yeah, then you are just a technician.
Pia Silva: Which I felt terrible about 'cause I was all proud of myself for building this business. And then also I was a part of, are you familiar with eo, the Entrepreneur organization? Yes, I was in the accelerator program.
Intro: Okay. And.
Pia Silva: The whole accelerator program is about getting to a million. Yep. So I'm surrounded by people where that's, you know, that's the holy grail.
Pia Silva: Although, you know, I had a mentor once who was running a multimillion dollar business and I was taking home more than he was. Yeah. So I was a little, you know, wait a second. What's going on here? Like, you're being, you're being put on a pedestal here, [00:30:00] but. I'm doing really well. Actually, I'm doing better than you right now.
Pia Silva: Yeah, financially. And so these are just little seeds that were in my head. So what I want this book to do is help people realize the only person who can define success for you is you. And it's important that we get that power back and say, yeah, what? Do I really want, what does it cost? And also when you hit this 50, 25, 25 rule or more.
Pia Silva: So when we, like at one point we were doing one $30,000 project a month and it took a week. So we were actually making all of our revenue in one week, in 25% of our time. Well, that gave us extra time and money. To make decisions with. Mm-hmm. And we decided to invest in starting a new business. So this is, you know, not everybody wants to do that.
Pia Silva: And if you do, that's also great. I actually recommend this as the path we always call our agency. like our cash register, you know, oh, we need some cash for this project or this new business. Like do a [00:31:00] brand up. You know, pocket the money and now keep going with the things that we want. So I
love this model when you're an expert, because it's a way to generate a lot of money.
Pia Silva: Like once you get it kind of in the right place, profitability wise, it's a really great way to generate cash, almost on demand. And then you can choose. Am I just gonna invest this in property? Maybe I wanna invest in the stock market. Maybe I wanna do a multiple, maybe I wanna create a passive income product, which takes a while to actually get profitable.
Pia Silva: You need a runway of time and money. So I, what I love most about it is that, A, you are finding success, and B, you are allowed to evolve with that success. Mm-hmm. But this will give you those opportunities and options. I
Dustin: love it. Yeah, I think that's the power of the freedom flex. Time is, yes, it's flexible, right?
Dustin: And you can have periods where you're like, this quarter we are grinding and we want to, you know, whatever, upgrade our house or get a car or pay for a kid's, tuition or something like that. And you have that flexible time to do that. But you also have the [00:32:00] seasons where you wanna chill. You need to take care of a parent.
Dustin: uh, you have your own health. Thing to deal with, right? And so when you set up with 25% of margin sort of as the baseline, it gives you tons of flexibility, for different seasons of life because we all, you know, go through different seasons of life. And I think the key thing you said there that really resonated with me and I know resonates with everyone listening to this is.
Dustin: Yeah, you get to choose and you have the quote unquote permission. you know, I don't know who you needed it from, but you have it from pia. so you have the permission to stay small if that is in alignment with your own goals, ambitions, personal values, faith walk, like whatever is, Informing your vision of what your business is and how the role it's supposed to play in your life.
Dustin: So I absolutely love the mission you're on. I love the mission behind the book. so yeah, as we wrap up, like tell us more about the book and how to get it and, where this calculator fits in. 'cause I don't wanna forget you told me to remind you, so I'm doing that as
Pia Silva: well. Okay. I'll start with the calculator, so don't forget.
Pia Silva: Yeah. you can go to no bs [00:33:00] mastery.com/price and you can just. Grab the calculator there. It's a very simple, walk you through it in a quick video. and that'll give, that'll start to get like it's a great place to just. See those numbers immediately, and then that'll give you a starting point at least.
Pia Silva: and then my book, is outscale solo book.com. go check it out. I really, I decided that I wanted to tell all I've been living this model for. 12 years, I've been teaching it in different forms for 10 years, very intensively and deep For the last five years, I, I impact the intensives model and I am now opening it up to teach the intensives model and the whole thing to all experts.
Pia Silva: And this book was really my opportunity to like put it all down on paper and like give it away. So if any of this is interesting to you, yeah, you will definitely get a lot out of my book and I hope you love it. And if you do. Please write me a review.
Dustin: Absolutely. That's the thing. Rights, um, that's, it's one of things I admire about Selena, who's our, our [00:34:00] connection.
Dustin: And she's so specific and like, here's my goal. I want Amazon reviews, and she does lots of things, you know, towards that goal. So I love that you, you shared that. Yeah. And if there's any. One point in this conversation, or I'm, I'm
assuming probably multiple points where you're like, man, that that really resonates with me.
Dustin: I want to go deeper. I want to like, take action on that. every question that I asked Pia today was from the book, right? So the book is absolutely the next best step for everyone. So the calculator, no bs mastery.com/price. We'll put that in the show notes. and then the big link here is scale solo book.
Dustin: Dot com so you can go get a copy for yourself. Leave her a glowing Amazon or Good reads, review. I will be doing the same. So, well, this is awesome, Pia. I really appreciate you. I'm, I'm looking forward to getting to know you better through our connections and having you be part of my referral network.
Dustin: but, yeah, for today, I'm, I'm really grateful for the time I got to spend with you. you're real gift to me. I'm very much in alignment with everything you're about and your mission here. And highly recommend people go grab the book. so scale [00:35:00] solo book.com and hope to see you again soon. Pia, appreciate you.
Pia Silva: Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for having me, Dustin. This was super fun.