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

If you sell a product, digital or not, you are going to experience what this Fizzler experienced. She sells a digital training course. The course has a 30 day money back guarantee. That kind of return policy is pretty common in the digital course world. But what do you do if someone needs a refund past that return policy? What if it involves a moving personal story? What if they try to publicly shame you about it? In this episode we share that Fizzler’s story and killer advice about how to handle customer service issues like these. Enjoy! MORE STUFF: http://fizzleshow.co/136

The whole idea of content marketing is predicated on one core belief. We’re all screwed if it’s a bogus belief. > “The model proposed in blogging seems to be that you show what you know, people sign up, and then you sell them what you know.” This is Steve Fossey writing in the Fizzle forums recently. > **“I almost NEVER pay for anything on the web when I have been attracted by free content. Why would my audience?”** Steve’s question is a good one, a question most of us ask at some point in the journey of building a blog or podcast with the hopes of eventually earning revenue from a product of some kind. So on the show today we dissect this issue. You may have an idea of what the results are, but how we get there will surprise you. Corbett’s ideas and experience here are especially insightful. Subscribe if you haven’t — and please, enjoy the show. Show Notes How to Decide Which Content to Sell and What to Give Away for Free - Copyblogger (http://www.copyblogger.com/sell-or-give/) The Technium: 1,000 True Fans (http://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/) The Passionate Podcaster's High Quality Microphone Shootout (https://fizzle.co/sparkline/podcast-high-quality-microphone-shootout) How Stress Makes You Sick - The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/how-stress-makes-you-sick/412699/) Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233) Elon Musk: The World's Raddest Man - Wait But Why (http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html) PrepDish.com — Shop once, prep once, enjoy healthy, stress-free meals all week! (http://www.prepdish.com/)

We all want to grow our thing and we all need to do a bunch of work to do it. (Note: by “thing” there I’m referring to your product sales or blog or podcast or something.) But most of us don’t realize there are 2 kinds of growth. **Understanding the difference between the two will help you figure out what you should work on to grow your thing.** We’ll walk you through the two kinds of growth and help you make decisions, answering questions like: - What kind of growth is "best"? - Do I *have* to use both? - Plus several examples of real life growth projects. How you think about growing your business can lead to burnout. Let’s nip that in the bud and help your business flourish. Enjoy! Read more: http://fizzleshow.co/134

Self doubt is a natural, inevitable and very real part of building a business. And in this episode we share how we think about it, how we process it and how we overcome it. If you compare yourself to other entrepreneurs, deal with self doubt, or feel the need for validation, you're going to love this episode. Enjoy! "Entrepreneurship is a balance of self confidence and self doubt." ~ Corbett Barr ## Contents - Cesspool: *an underground container for the temporary storage of liquid waste and sewage.* Do you smell something? It might be your self doubt. - "Validation" - "How bad can it get?" - "I really really hate this topic. {Indiscriminate yelling.}" \~ Barrett - Comparing yourself to others - Sometimes we lose faith, or, rather, forget the point. - Self awareness = knowing what you're working towards *beyond* the trophy that others may be playing for. This keeps you from comparison. - Refocus on your own metrics. Set a goal to improve something. [The metric you choose matters]. - Refocus on your core audience. Hear what they're struggling with and let it remind you of why you started this in the first place. - Play... have grace on yourself, backup, remind yourself why you like to be alive (if you do). - There's a lot more in the episode, these are just a few of the bits I wanted to pull out. > "Feeling confident — or pretending that you feel confident — is necessary to reach for opportunities. It’s a cliche, but opportunities are rarely offered; they are seized. Given how fast the world moves today, grabbing opportunities is more important than ever.” ~ Sheryl Sandberg Read more: http://fizzleshow.co/133

http://fizzleshow.co/132 Email marketing. Those two words pack a powerful punch in the world of independent entrepreneurs and small business. In this week's episode we tackle some of your most common questions about using email to grow your business. Corbett, Steph, and Barrett are your hosts for this week's show on email marketing tools, strategies, and terminology. But if that's all you get out of this episode, then you've missed the point. Email marketing should fuel your business strategy, not the other way around. Sure, email is as relevant as ever before in building a business, but only if you use it well. If you've been wondering when and how to get started with email marketing in your business (or perhaps you want to revamp your current email strategy), this is the perfect conversation for you. Tune in.

http://fizzleshow.co/131 What, exactly, does it mean to be an entrepreneur? And is this whole passion thing all it's cracked up to be? Is it possible to shift from a mindset of scarcity to one of abundance? We tackle all of these questions and a few more on today's episode of the show. Today's episode is fueled by real questions from real entrepreneurs struggling with what it means to build an independent business in today's world. We pulled five questions from the forums and answered them in depth on today's show: 1. How do you shift your mindset away from the scarcity mindset? 2. Where does passion come from and why does it matter? 3. What do I do if I have NO lasting interests? 4. What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? 5. What advice do you have to stop obsessing over negative feedback? If you're up for an hour of existential fun and entrepreneurial contemplation, this is the perfect episode for you.

http://fizzleshow.co/130 On the show today we share a smorgasbord of rewarding and profitable tidbits! - Want to know more about how we prepare for public speaking? Done. - Want to know how Chase memorizes lines of his video scripts? Done. - Want to hear about that one time when Steph ruined the sleepover? Done. - Tesla driverless car stuff? Of course! - YOU GET A CAR! YOU GET A CAR! YOU GET A CAR! Honestly, I had a blast recording this episode. It's honest, raw and interesting, with plenty of rich tips to collect along the way. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/129 - What if you could start a business today that actually interests you? Not a lame business, not something your parents would say sounds like a decent idea, but something that only excites someone like you? What if I told you that working on that crazy, "just for you" business idea might lead to more success faster than a more generic, "this will probably work" kind of business idea? In this episode we tell the story of a Fizzler who literally did both and share what happened in each. The results are like a punch in the gut. In this hour of the podcast we share Chris' story, the reasons behind the results and several eye-opening examples of non-obvious business ideas.

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](https://fizzle.co/sparkline/project-management-for-entrepreneurs)), - **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!