The Fizzle Show

http://fizzleshow.co/128 - Last Saturday, our friend Scott Dinsmore died while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. He was just 33 years old. Scott and his wife Chelsea were eight months into a year-long trip around the world. Scott was a close personal friend, and a big supporter of the work we do here at Fizzle. Scott's Live Your Legend blog and community reached hundreds of thousands around the world, and his excellent TEDx talk on finding and doing work you love has been watched nearly three million times. Scott deeply believed we could all change the world simply by doing work we love. Today's podcast episode is dedicated to Scott. Scott and Chelsea visited my wife and me in Mexico this winter as part of their trip. During the visit, Scott and recorded an interview for a new project he was working on. We talked about how a first-time entrepreneur should go about creating their first product for sale. This was one of the last long conversations I had with Scott.

The 9 Stage Small Business Roadmap: A step-by-step plan for what comes next in your business (FS127) One of the biggest challenges in building an independent small business is figuring out the answer to one simple question: Now what do I do? At every stage of building a business, it's a challenge to learn what you need to know to continue growing. In this episode. we chat about the 9-stage small business roadmap we've just released at Fizzle. fizzleshow.co/127

http://fizzleshow.co/126 Zero Budget Marketing: Growth Hacking, Guerrilla Marketing, and More Buzzy Marketing Tactics How do we as indie entrepreneurs navigate this stuff? How can we get more people to our stuff without spending a bunch of money. that's what we get into today... answering a specific question from Fizzler Tim Wetton. Enjoy: http://fizzleshow.co/126

http://fizzleshow.co/125 The content you publish could be an evergreen source of traffic, revenue, brand love and loyalty. Or it could be a total waste of time and effort. So how do you know what content to create? In this episode we'll show you how to decide what questions you should spend time answering for your audience, including ways to learn right now from other peoples' audiences (in case you haven't built your own yet). Click play, subscribe in your podcast app, download it for later or do whatever it is you do with these episodes, but please, for all our sakes, enjoy yourself.

http://fizzleshow.co/124 How you price your product, service or workshop can have a *massive* impact on your sales. Unfortunately, it can also lead to a *massive* anxiety attack as well. In this episode we lay out 7 pricing strategies you should know about. More importantly, however, we share off the cuff, brutally honest ideas about how to price your offering. Other topics include: - 7 pricing strategies for you to choose from - 3 methods to price your first product - When to use your gut and when not to - What kinds of things should be on your sales page to help customers feel comfortable with your price - "Pre-selling" to test the price of digital products - Why we threw out our pricing strategy several months after we launched Fizzle Whether it's your first time putting something up for sale, or you're an old pro, the tactics in this conversation are going to help you get confident about your pricing. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/123 Why are you pursuing a life as an entrepreneur? Is it for money? How about freedom? The ability to set your own schedule? Or is it about working on a problem that's important to you? Whatever your reason (btw, we get into our own answers to these questions in the show), is it taking you too long to get there? Is your life as an entrepreneur showing signs of wear and tear on your relationships? How would you know if it's *not* working well enough? These are the questions we get into in todays episode in response to Mark's question (written below). This episode will help you get into *why* you're doing this work, what the purpose of the effort is. Remembering your *WHY* can be enough to completely open up the future for you and your project. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/122 Do you work from home or manage a team that works remotely? Have you felt how inefficient and lackluster running a decentralized team can be? It's nice to side step the costs of an office, the commutes, the daytime interruptions that come with going remote, but the challenges can build up. In this episode you'll learn exactly how we solve these problems, including: - **How to feel like a team** even when you're completely remote, - **The systems you need** to run smoothly (our company operating system), - **The tools to use** to communicate and stay productive remotely. Don't cobble together a Kludge (we define that in today's show :) — here's how we got to a fully functional remote team. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/121 - It’s stupid how simple it should be. If you want a successful business, make something people want enough to pay you money for it. Duh, right? In practice, however, it is dubious and complex, requiring enough art, science and faith that we might as well call it alchemy. Here's a 45m conversation about that very topic. If you listen to it, you'll know how, exactly, you're supposed to make something people want. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/120 This is a Q&A episode from the Fizzle Team — you ask the questions, Corbett, Chase, Steph and Barrett bring the answers. On the show today we get into a handful of questions, including: - What's the best way to approach growing your traffic through guest posting? - How should you be thinking about the mobile web? Do you need to change the *way* you're writing? - How should you pick a name for your side project? - + a couple more.

http://fizzleshow.co/119 The story on todays episode is especially helpful for those of you who work directly with clients — freelancers, videographers, designers, copywriters, etc. We have a special guest on the show today (*especially* special for those of you who listened to all the early episodes of The Fizzle Show) who's recently created a videography business from the ground up, and on the show today we hear his story. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/118 Paul has a 6 month runway before he has to find another job. He *really* doesn't want to find another job. Instead, he's got a blog and a product — both already out on the market — that he wants to grow to support his family. So the question we get into today is: ***what should he do next?*** Corbett has some *very* strong opinions about it. If you like this business breakdown episode, you may also like the episode where we break down Mary’s business. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/117 - On this week's episode we explore a handful of current events, sharing some news of our own along the way. - Co-working experiences evaluated - Barrett's Elon Musk (+ Peter Thiel) obsession - Ideas for telling others' stories (instead of your own) - A quick lil' mastermind trick. That's a few of the goodies we dive into in this episode. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/116 - Starting an affiliate program could be a great way to increase revenue if you already have a product for sale. But it's not easy and there's a lot of ways it can go horribly wrong. Not to mention the fact that this industry is notoriously sleazy. In this episode we share how to manage your own affiliate program, helping you think through things we've had both good and bad experiences with, including: - Open vs closed affiliate programs - How affiliate programs go wrong - Corbett's Clickbank story - Barrett's incredible rant about how his heroes let him down through affiliate BS

http://fizzleshow.co/115 - We love side projects. Most of our successful projects started out as side projects during full time employment. But finding the balance between a side project and a day job often feels impossible. Then you try to throw in a little time for yourself outside of the jobs and side projects and the whole thing topples over. So, if so many businesses are started out as side projects, how can we balance both staying employed for as long as necessary *and* finding enough time to build our side project? That's what we get into in the show today, complete with several examples of very successful businesses today that were once started as side projects. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/114 Do you get that pit in your stomach on Sunday evenings — dreading what Monday brings? Do you feel isolated from your coworkers? You might hate your job. I did. In fact, each of us on the show today have struggled with those exact feelings. And on the show today we break down how to analyze, cope and make liberating decisions about your job. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/113 - Mary is in a tight spot. After growing her audience, keeping them engaged, and making her product, she's realized sales are not what she thought they would be. In this episode we sort of virtually consult Mary about her business, developing ideas for her and anyone else in a similar situation, handling stuff like: - Doing back of the napkin math to see how much of anything you need to sell to pay your bills. - Lots of candid conversation about how we view traffic and conversion. - How to develop ideas for "what's next" strategies. - How to discover debilitating expectations (and correct them). Have you ever had to go back to the drawing board after you hit a wall of disappointment? If you haven't yet... you will. This episode is an *excellent* guide through that process; how to think about it, how to develop strategies, where to find inspiration. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/112 If you're thinking about hiring a business coach, if you've ever wondered what to expect from working with a coach or if it's worth the cost, this podcast episode is perfect for you. We discuss our experience with coaching (both working with the coach and being the coach) and share what you need to know before you get started, answering questions like: - What, exactly, will you gain by working with a coach? - How can you find and hire a coach (or a few coaches)? - What mindset should you bring to a coaching relationship and what should you expect? - How can you evaluate if a coach is working for you or not? My personal hope for you on this one is this: if you're thinking about hiring a coach this episode gives you everything you need to get started. Because the clarity and action that comes from coaching can be world changing. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/111 - In this episode we're joined by a very special guest: the new Director of Member Success here at Fizzle, Steph Crowder. In Steph's inaugural episode we explore the experience and perspectives of women in startups and lifestyle businesses. - Is there discrimination against women in the indie business world? - What has Steph's experience been like? - What steps can all of us take right now to discover where gender bias is limiting our content strategies? - Plus a crap ton more. I mean it, we discuss a lot more, and Steph is *so* awesome. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/110 This is second and final episode in our series about how to make an engaging course on the cheap. You don't need a bunch of equipment, you need a solid plan. This list walks you through that plan. In this episode we continue walking through 38 tips to help you make something excellent your first time around. (If you haven't listened to it yet, here's part 1 of this conversation.) Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/109 At the time of writing, Fizzle has over 400 lessons in 31 courses. That's over 10 courses a year for the past 2.5 years. I've always loved teaching ideas that excite me. And, after the past few years here, we've made a business out of creating courses that change people's lives. In this 2 part conversation we share over 30 tips to help you make *engaging* courses you can sell yourself, covering topics like: - How to develop a course topic that will sell itself instead of burn you out. - What apps and software should you use? - When should you host it yourself (on WordPress or something similar) and when should you jump on a platform like Udemy? - What methods we use for content strategy. - And a whole crap ton more! This is an exciting couple episodes to me because I've lived this course creation stuff for the past few years, figuring out some processes that have been enormously helpful for us (and hopefully will be for you as well). Enjoy!