Madison Reeves
- Mar 9, 2022
- 4 min read

How To Start Saying No & Finding Your Niche With Ellen Pustejovsky

Welcome back to Project Badass Podcast. Today we are interviewing our very first guest, Ellen Pustejovsky. She is a portrait and landscape photographer in Black Hills, SD. Ellen focuses on sharing glamour in simplicity through her personal brand SimpleLifeGlamour.

In today’s episode, we talk about developing your niche, having the power to say no, creating an online presence by creating valuable content and so much more! Here are a few snippets of our conversation. To listen to the entire episode click here.

Why is social media important as a business owner?

For those that believe having an online presence as a business owner or entrepreneur is not important - it is. If you want to get yourself in front of a new audience to grow and develop your business, you’ve got to be online. It’s very important to not just be online, but have a purpose on how it’s serving your community. The most important thing in social media is showing up with the understanding that this is not about you, it’s about your community.

What value can you provide?

What things do you know that would be of value to your audience?

When creating content, the rule of thumb to follow is 80% of the time you should be providing value to your audience and 20% of the time you can talk about your offers, what your business is, and what you do. If all you do is sell, sell, sell, your community is going to be turned off by that.

Ellen, you have a Content Creation Program. What can you tell me about that?

I have a content creation program that is geared towards mentorship. I offer mentorship on top of creating all of the visual elements for your brand and the brand development too. Most of the people that come to me are people who are just starting out. Usually, they're not exactly sure of the direction and clarity on where they want to go. I really get to know these people and that's where the magic really starts happening with the content creation. I get to go to events with them and document them in their day-to-day life. The very casual things that might seem mundane to you throughout your day are going to be really interesting to your audience. So I provide that service where I'll come and follow you. As an example, If you go to a music festival and you want the content of that, I'll come with you and I will film you.

What are some results a client from this program has seen?

I work with a strength and conditioning coach here locally. For this program, I'll actually go into the gym with him and photograph him. Sometimes we'll do styled shoots where we plan his outfit out and we'll go into the gym to work on very specific movements that he's trying to teach to his audience. So it's all very strategized on top of having very high-end visual elements that are going to curate their brand. He has been seeing some really good results. He has now started working at the local university as one of their strength and conditioning coaches. That's on top of cultivating clientele for one-on-one sessions as well as his own personal group training too. He is starting to see results with building that momentum over the last couple of months, which is really exciting for him.

So Ellen, what is your Big Why?

Yeah, so probably my biggest why for what I do is the freedom it allows me to have. I'm able to put my focus on where I want to every single day. Whether that be the relationships or the passion that I've put into my work, having that balance between everything and ultimately the long-term goal is to be able to have this all on passive income. At that point, I'm able to continue to keep focus when I have a family and I will be able to put all my attention when I start having kids. I want to spend time with them in those moments. Time is the one thing you can't get back. What I value the most is being able to spend my time the way I want to with who I want to. That's my why behind what it is that I do. When I'm happy, I'm able to serve everybody around me so much better, I'm able to be excited and passionate about teaching them the stuff that I know that they want to know about.

How do you ensure that you are staying true to your Big Why?

Balancing different things throughout the entire day. I'm working on something different multiple times in my day. So part of the day I'll be working on my photo editing and my computer time, putting time into going outside, getting sunshine, and exercising. I continue to grow my education, reading for at least a chapter a day in some kind of book that's going to teach me something about what it is that I'm interested in and how it can move me forward. So that balance throughout the day is what really helps me keep my sanity.

What is one tactical business strategy or tip that changed the way that you run your business?

Simple as more. I swear, that has been my motto for a very long time, and every time I channel that in, it really does just make everything come together so much more seamlessly and easily. I'm not putting so much thought into something, just do it. Take the action. Don't think too hard about it because there's always room for improvement.