The Fizzle Show — Heart & Hustle, Self Employment & Creative Business

We surveyed Fizzle members and asked them: what is the most difficult thing in your business right now. Today on the show we talk about 3 of the most common responses to that question, offering in return some of that wisdom, humor and experience you’ve come to expect from the Fizzle Show. (BTW, you can see the results of the entire survey [here] with beautiful illustrations.) Enjoy!

I’ve been working for myself full time for a little under a decade now and I use tools to get my work done every day. Some tools are essential, like, I wouldn’t be able to get my work done without them. Others are just super helpful. On the show today we talk about 10 pieces of gear we rely on to get our work done. Some are fun, some are serious, some are perfect for that Amazon gift card you’ve got burning a hole in your pocket :) Be sure to subscribe and say hi in the comments below and enjoy this episode of The Fizzle Show! Show Notes: Fizzleshow.com/195

Today we are talking about goal setting… which is *not* a favorite subject of mine. If you feel the same way, this conversation is *for you* because the Steph will literally change everything you think and feel about goals. I know because it happened to me… live… as we recorded the episode. In this episode she walks us through a kind of 5-step process for setting REAL goals… not the fake stuff that you set and feel hopeful about for a few weeks before fizzling out. If you want to learn how to set goals that you’ll STICK with, press play and download the toolkit below to follow along. Enjoy! Read more: fizzleshow.co/194

There are 10 modern trends in small business you need to know about. 5 of them are recent, emerging, and the other 5 continue to be timeless. On the show today we’re going to walk you through each one. Enjoy! Oh wait, we are doing the first ever survey of fizzle show listeners and I want to hear your thoughts, Fizzleshow.co/survey I’ll tell you more about it in the episode, but if you’re at a computer right now go to Fizzleshow.co/survey. Okay lets do it. FizzleShow.co/193

We’ve got a few weeks left until the end of the year and you can probably feel it’d be pretty easy to just take your foot off the gas, let things slow down, maybe mindlessly read the news a little? *OR*, you could take a breath, make a plan, and finish the year off STRONG. Today on the show we’re sharing 8 ways to end this year strong so you can start off next year with clear eyes and a clean slate. Enjoy! show notes: fizzleshow.co/192

You want to be more productive and motivated? Let’s talk about your work environment — and more specifically how your work environment shapes your productivity. On the show today Corbett, Chase and Steph walk you through insights about how our work places effect our work practices. This one’s especially helpful for those of us who work from home (and coffee shops and libraries and bars and…) Show Notes: Fizzleshow.co/191

Being “inspired” as an entrepreneur can mean a lot to your business and life. To me, the *feel* of inspiration is towards possibility and opportunity… a far cry from the standard doom and gloom that can come with starting a business. But more importantly, I find my best ideas, my most creative moments, come not when I’m dour and heavy, but when I’m light and hopeful… which is what I mean when I say “inspired.” So, we think it’s important to find a little wind for your wings, chase your interest, make some space in your life for YOU, and we want to teach you how we do it so you can find your own way. On this episode we share 11 things that are inspiring us right now in our business and personal lives so you can come up with some new ways right now to practice a little discipline of inspiration. Thanks for listening and please enjoy the show! show notes: fizzleshow.co/190

If you’re creating a business you are going to need help. At some point in your journey a suggestion from a peer, or an insight from an article could lead to a major breakthrough for you. *But where do you go for that help?* That is the question we dig into in today’s podcast, sharing insights from each of us about where we truly find help in modern business. Getting good help could be the difference between making progress right now or waking up in a year realizing your business idea completely fizzled out, so let’s talk about where you can get help. Enjoy the show (and thanks for listening!). Show Notes: fizzleshow.co/189

Email newsletters can be a great way to grow an audience and keep them engaged. IN fact, it’s like, the most common modern business advice around right now to start growing an email list as soon as possible. So in this episode we’re going to look at 6 of our favorite modern email newsletters. Enjoy! Show Notes: Fizzleshow.co/188

Most of us feel like the right website can go a long way to helping us get discovered. But most of us also don’t have a large chunk of money lying around to pay for a beautiful custom website. Shownotes: FizzleShow.co/187 So, we have to do it ourselves. That usually means choosing between Squarespace and WordPress. Putting together a great website can be a nightmare, and there’s a lot riding on the decisions we make. So, we’re going to help you make the best decision you can in this episode.

When we ask entrepreneurs what they are struggling with, it’s incredibly common to hear, “I want to get more done.” In fact, when we surveyed thousands of our readers, by far the most popular struggle was ‘time management.’ Struggle number two was ‘motivation.’ So today on the fizzle show we’re going to talk about that. We published a huge article about what we believe are the 10 most important time management practices. In this episode, we’re going to dive deep on our favorites from that list. Strap in, this is a good one. Show Notes: Fizzleshow.co/186

Modern western culture is buzzing with ideas about living a happy and fulfilled life. I can’t walk down the street without seeing a #liveyourdream hashtag on something. There seems to be hundreds of books, podcasts, courses, shows and instagram accounts about it. But with all the gurus and research courses and books out there, is there a framework that can really help? I mean, we should know that by now, right? Of course the answer is “no,” there is not a one-size-fits-all framework for a happy life; that easy button does not exist. *BUT*, as your own experience probably tells you, there absolutely are things you can do to keep heading in the direction of happiness and fulfillment. So that’s what we talk about in this episode: the ideas and practices that have meant the most to the three of us working, experienced and successful-ish entrepreneurs. After the past decade or so of full time professional creative work, what have we learned about rich inner fulfillment? Enjoy, and thanks for listening. Show Notes: fizzleshow.co/185

Overwhelmed. Submerged. Swamped. Engulfed. This is what it feels like to become lost *inside* your business. Shownotes: http://fizzleshow.co/184 - You get lost in the necessary day to day operations. - You get lost wasting months on an elusive project that never gets finished. - You get lost in the fog of un-motivation. (Or is it “de-motivation”?) - You get lost in the anxiety and worry of declining metrics. No matter the skill level, at one point or another all entrepreneurs get lost like this. So much so that it has a name. **It’s called working *IN* your business instead of working *ON* your business.** When you’re working *ON* your business crazy things happen. Things like fresh ideas, camaraderie, confidence and vacations. Mmmmmm… that’s what we got into this thing for, that’s why we became entrepreneurs in the first place, to design our own lives, to pursue what *we* wanted to pursue, to cultivate freedom. **So today we want to show you why your business pushes you until you’re overwhelmed.** We also want to show you some tricks we’ve learned that, when used properly, will keep you confident and motivated to untangle any problems that come your way. That’s what we’re talking about today on the Fizzle Show. Enjoy!

“I did everything right, but my audience *STILL* isn’t growing. How do I get random strangers to discover me?” I loved how honestly the question was asked in the [Fizzle Forums]. Show Notes: FizzleShow.co/183 It came from a woman who had taken one of our courses, the one about *defining and understanding your target audience*. The course had helped her make big improvements to her website, going so far as to design a new strategy for the content she writes. But when the dust cleared, there wasn’t. Much. Change. If you want to find out *why* this happens — maybe why it’s happening to *you* — click play and let’s get into it. Enjoy… and thanks for listening!

One huge risk in modern small business is to spend months or years working on a project only to release it… and find nobody wants it. Show Notes: FizzleShow.co/182 Entrepreneurship has *risk* at the heart of it. We manage risk. Some of us manage that risk well. Others poorly. Most of us don’t plan for risk very well, but we’ve got enough tenacity to make changes on the fly as we learn. So, what if you could reduce the risk of your business? What if you could make your project or business or campaign *more likely to succeed*? What if you could do that right now, without creating a [business plan] or [designing prototypes] or even [naming your business]? Would you do it? And if I told you it had something to do with talking honestly, curiously and candidly with potential customers — doing more listening than talking, in fact — would that make you nervous? Or would it excite you? It probably bums you out a little. **Talking to customers can be hard, but it will literally make your business more likely to succeed over the long-haul.** Now, when we at Fizzle talk about talking to customers we actually mean a very specific methodology. We teach that method in [this course]. It involves anchor questions, follow up questions, insights about finding people to talk to, etc. But for those of you who might be new to this way of talking to customers, we wanted to create a podcast episode where we talk you through what we think are the most important pieces of this process. This conversation will be especially helpful if your business is online and you, like many of us, spend more time talking AT your customers than you do talking WITH your customers… … because feedback from these people can change the course of your business success forever. Enjoy!