The Fizzle Show

<p>If you make a podcast or need to interview people at all, there’s a trick you can use to get deep into interesting material. You know that’s how your podcast or youtube channel or interview posts get popular, right? By having incredibly interesting content? That’s the trick. And this tip is going to help you get that interesting moment into more of your content. **You simply have to hear this tip in action… honestly, it makes it so easy to understand.** In the podcast episode here Steph shows us three moments in her own show where she used this trick to find “the moment” for each of her guests. Show Notes: <a href="http://fizzleshow.co/222">http://fizzleshow.co/222</a></p>

<p>Recently we’ve experienced some work being stolen. Creative ideas getting plucked up and sold elsewhere without attribution. This isn’t new for us. Nor is it new for many who do work online. In creative work there is often this risk that ideas or product can be stolen, used elsewhere by other people. In fact, you may have heard that old adage great artists *steal*, which is to say that much of your own creative work may be have been heavily influenced by other work that came before you. How can we indie entrepreneurs navigate these tumbly slopes? How should we think about this? How should we behave and how should we protect ourselves? This is what we get into in the podcast today. A *great* episode for any of us who want to be lifetime creatives. Enjoy! Show Notes: http;//fizzleshow.co/221</p>

<p>If you work with clients directly there’s a very good chance you’re going to have to deal with some shitty situations. - Clients asking for late refunds - Clients delaying payment for waaaaaaay too long - Customers leaving bad reviews on Yelp, Etsy or something like it - Clients changing requirements in the middle of a project - Client taking *forever* to get back to you, stopping your progress, and preventing you from finishing and getting paid - Clients ending up completely unhappy with the work On the podcast episode and article below we walk you through several steps to try to alleviate your client blowouts. And we go one very necessary step further and help you understand steps you can take to keep blowouts like this from happening! Show Notes: <a href="http://fizzleshow.co/220">http://fizzleshow.co/220</a></p>

<p>We know you’ve heard it before (um, even from us) — you should join a mastermind group, also known as a group of 4-6 people who meet about every two weeks to give each other advice and hold one another accountable to big goals. It’s kind of a no brainer, isn’t it? We all know that trying to do it all alone as an entrepreneur is a recipe for eventually giving up when the going gets tough. So to join forces with people who get what you’re doing, who you can bounce ideas off of — it’s basically a way to build an informal board of advisors into your business. We’ve already written all about masterminds, what they are and how to find them. So for today’s conversation, we’re approaching this from a new angle. We’re focusing on the pitfalls: why groups fizzle out before they really get off the wrong, how even groups with the best of intentions might set themselves up to fail, and how to build yours strong from the start to avoid losing steam. Show Notes: FizzleShow.co/219</p>

<p>In this episode we hear the back story of Jonas Ellison, now a leading publisher on Medium.com. Jonas tells how he started as a freelancer, got burnt out on working with clients, and then found his way to creating an audience around a topic he loves. Enjoy! Notes: <a href="http://fizzleshow.co/218">http://fizzleshow.co/218</a></p>

<p>Jonas Ellison spent the last year growing an audience on Medium.com, and it worked… accidentally. On the show today you’re going to hear tangible tips about Medium.com, which will help you decide if you should use this growing platform to grow an audience. There are some new features on Medium that make both Corbett and Chase do a bit of a double take on using this platform. Grab a cuppa and dive in for some entertaining education about the “youtube for bloggers”, Medium.com. Enjoy! ShowNotes: fizzleshow.co/217</p>

<p>Travel can lead to inspiration, vision and clarity for your business. That can mean *huge gains* when you’re an owner-operator of a small business. As indie-preneurs and solo-preneurs we can often be the bottleneck for our business. Our mindset can be the leading cause of atrophy or stagnation in our strategies and execution. Play time, vacation and travel, however, can be used to “knock the barnacles off” and reset our intention and focus so we can see clearly and move with more purpose. BUT you may not want to put everything on hold and dive right into vacation without planning it through a bit. So, in this podcast we teach you how successful indie entrepreneurs think through and plan their vacations. 
Enjoy! Show notes: fizzleshow.co/216</p>

<p>In this episode we walk through a process to get clarity about what projects you should focus on next. You know the feeling… too many projects on the todo list; you bit off more than you can chew. So we could all use a simple process to get us back on track. We call it the Energizer Planning Method because when you go through this process you’ll have clarity and confidence about exactly what’s next… and that just happens to be very energizing. Show Notes: fizzleshow.co/215</p>

<p>Is the work you’re doing towards your goal working at all? What if you’ve been working for several months and don’t have much to show for it? Is this normal? Is this how it works at first? Speaking of normal, what is normal!? What kind of results should you be expecting? Today on the show we talk about several places you can look to diagnose where your problem might be coming from. And the first step is looking at those expectations. How can we *intelligently* set our expectations in modern indie business? Dive into the show and enjoy… Show Notes: fizzleshow.co/214</p>

<p>Work. Side-hustle. School. Morning routine. Kids. Commute. Exercise. Meditation. Meal prep. Rest. Evaluation. If you’re like me, you fill your days with as much “I’m supposed to do this” stuff as possible. I’m supposed to exercise. I’m supposed to have good ideas for my business. I’m supposed to be diligent about executing those ideas. I’m supposed to eat healthy. I’m supposed to be present. I’m supposed to make enough time for my family. Oh yea, I’m supposed sleep well too. It feels like A LOT, like too much, if I’m honest. So, it was *amazing* to see this topic brought up on the Fizzle forums by Xenia Ferraro who asked: *How do you balance your life?* She adds: > “how in the world do you do it?? I always thought I was awesome at time management **but I'm finding that I may be taking on too much?** Spreading myself too thin? I would hate to give anything up for the time being, but am nervous I may have to.” Show Notes: fizzleshow.co/213</p>

<p>In the kinds of very small businesses we talk about at Fizzle, with teams of fewer than 5 people, many with just one person, very little of what we do on a day-to-day is CEO-type stuff. Most of what we do is run around wearing one of dozens of different hats. Marketing, product development, finance, team building, and on and on. In a bigger business, a CEO would care about all these things, but they wouldn’t be his or her primary focus. A CEO’s main job in a bigger company should be to own the company’s vision and convince everyone possible of why they should support that vision. Customers, investors, employees, everybody. Beyond that, a CEO is responsible for making sure the company’s efforts are driving progress toward that vision, and that the business has the resources it needs to succeed (skills, talent, money). Read More: Fizzleshow.co/212</p>

<p>Doesn’t matter what surf board you’re riding, if the wave is too small it can’t generate enough lift to catch your board and make it flow. The same is true with your marketing. If you can’t generate a large enough swell with your website, your emails, your headlines, your social media, your customers WON’T catch your waves. I call this resonance. The deeper you can resonate with your customers, the more effective everything is. **And today on the show we have, what I call, a resonance expert.** (BTW, Steph is on vacation with her family and will return next week for a proper Fizzle Show episode on how to be CEO of your business… drawing on insights from this conversation as well as the previous one with John and Dana.) So, back to our resonance expert — Vanessa Van Edwards is like a Malcom Gladwell or Brené Brown, a researcher who can deftly and expertly translate that research into tangible, accessible communication. Vanessa’s topic of research and training is: cracking the code of interesting human behavior, understanding the hidden dynamics of people. Basically, she loves to figure people out. Through her research, her teaching and her writing she helps people, basically, learn how to be the most interesting person in the room. And today, among other things, we’re going to talk with her about using the science of personality to resonate deeper with our audience online. Enjoy! Fizzleshow.co/211</p>

<p>I’d venture to say that most of us, when we think about a “successful business” we’d want to create, it will look like what is known as a *lifestyle business.* These are the kinds of businesses where your business serves your life, not the other way around. And with the tools of the internet and extremely affordable training like [Fizzle’s Courses], this kind of business has become a real, viable approach to revenue earning and wealth creation. BUT — and this is a big but here — it’s still a difficult path. Becoming a doctor is a viable path for you as well, but we all know it ain’t easy. You don’t just “fall into” becoming a doctor. Now, though it’s true that many people really have just “fallen into” success of many shapes and sizes online, it’s not a smart strategy to count on it. Just like becoming a doctor or a skydiving instructor (speaking of “falling in!”), it makes sense with an online business to understand what are the elements necessary for success, what expectations are *intelligent* to have and how success happens. It’s that last one we want to dive into today. How does success in lifestyle business *actually* happen? What are the steps and stages? What are the red flags to watch for? What are the common mistakes and the truly important things? So, on the show today we have two very special guests — John and Dana Shultz from [Minimalist Baker]. They’re a married couple who have found enormous success running a blog about how to cook *“simple, delicious recipes that require 10 ingredients or less, one bowl, or 30 minutes or less to prepare.”* John and Dana are close friends of Fizzle. In fact, they teach a course within Fizzle called [Exactly How to Build a Great Food Blog]. Because they’re close friends I’m hoping we get a really juicy interview with them, full of the stuff that most people are too afraid to share. So, please enjoy this interview with founders of a truly successful lifestyle business. It’s our hope that you’ll find amazing insight here to help you as you develop your own path to success. Show Notes: Fizzleshow.co/210</p>

<p>Listen, there is a TON of competition in business today. The internet, which enables all of our personal businesses like never before, also makes it so now you compete with the entire world. But, we have a powerful tool at our disposal: specialization, focus, narrowing our target market, [aiming at a smaller business niche]. Now, if you’re already selling a bunch of product successfully — if your storehouse and bank account is full! — well then, you probably don’t need to specialize any more… it’s working, you’ve got it, well done. But, for many of us — especially those of us who are still getting our businesses off the ground — specialization, aiming at a smaller niche, focusing on a more precise target market, can make all the difference in getting your business flying, getting found, producing revenue. A great niche can help you: - get that difficult and necessary initial traction because your business is more remarkable to specific group of people. - resonate powerfully with visitors when they land on your website, blog, podcast, workshop, etc., because you’re “speaking their language.” - resonate, again! It can’t be overstated how important it is to be able to connect deeply with your target customers through your marketing materials; focusing on a more specific niche can make all the difference here. - come up with easy and effective marketing ideas because you know *exactly* who you’re making things for. This is another big one! Especially if you, like most modern businesses, will rely on internet content for finding new customers. Basically, defining a target market and niche that’s both “specific enough” AND currently underserve in the world will help you with everything… literally. Show Notes: Fizzleshow.co/209</p>

<p>We’re willing to bet you’ve heard and read lots of talk about the importance of pinpointing your ideal client, identifying a target market and picking a niche. Maybe you’re even sick of these concepts? (It’s okay, you can roll your eyes a little!) You’re probably tired of hearing these buzzwords because they get thrown around way too often without much meaning attached to them. Rather than simply passing out the same old advice, we’re going to spend this episode breaking down what each one means, and what to actually DO with that info. So before you skip this one thinking you’ve heard all there is to hear about these topics, hear us out. Let us guess what you’re thinking right now. It might be something like: I don’t want to say NO to potential customers. Can’t I just work with whoever I can work with? I just want to [make my product/work with people/write what I want to write]. Why do I have to spend time on this when My Favorite Blogger/Podcaster “does it all”? What happens if I pick the wrong thing? We get it. Today we’re tackling all of these concerns, and we’re laying out what these ideas actually mean — and how you can use them to power your business. Show Notes: Fizzleshow.co/208</p>