Fizzle Me This… Another Reminder + An In-person Workshop

I’m really not anti-social.

I’ve always been blessed with great friends and my wonderful family close by but as my business has grown and I’ve been fortunate to work for myself from home I’ve started to become a “creature of habit”.

Well… in a way I guess I always have been. My life is never dull, even with some of my standby ‘routines’. What I’ve realized though is that I really need a balance of showing up and doing the work, everyday (at my desk) and getting OUT OF THE FREAKIN’ HOUSE!

Which is what I did last Friday when I went into San Francisco to attend a workshop hosted by the @Fizzle founders: Corbett Barr, Chase Reeves and Caleb Wojcik.

Before I get into the workshop and Happy Hour afterwards, let me just paint a picture for you.

I live about an hour+ east of San Francisco.

Logistically.

As in, when there’s no traffic.

Depending on the time, day of the week and activities around the city (god forbid the Giants or 49ers are playing) a jaunt into the city can turn into a road trip. My trek home & out of the city later that night supported this (took about 40 min. to get onto the fwy and off the Bay Bridge, which is about a 10 min drive)… but it was SOOOO worth it! :-) I’ve done my fair share of commuting, always listening to something (books on “tape”… and they were literally cassette tapes! Business, Motivation, novels… you name it) and have never really minded driving. The beauty of the traffic getting out of the city last Friday night was that it was a brilliant reminder to feel grateful for what I do AND the people I get to connect with.

Onto the workshop.

Tell Your Story.

I’ve been a member of Fizzle for… 5 or 6 months now and have written about it in a previous post (The Single Best Thing You Can Do For Your Business). Over the last few months I’ve gone sideways in terms of my participation and course consumption. Life happens, I’m not going to borrow trouble with the “why” of that right now (it’s just a waste of time anyways, right?). While I’ve been a little MIA from the forums and coursework I haven’t missed a podcast episode yet so I’m staying somewhat on top of what’s happening in Fizzle.

Like the huge announcement they made last week.

Think Traffic is being ‘retired’ and they’ve now become “The Sparkline“.

I posted a comment on the blog post they wrote with this announcement because I think it takes a LOT of courage to let go of something that has worked, been hugely successful and no longer ‘fits’ where you are or what you’re doing.

Something I’ve contemplated on more than one occasion this past year and from that have decided to launch my own brand, KimDoyal.com (you can hear more about that here).

Which is why I KNEW I had to go to the live, in person workshop Fizzle was hosting last Friday in San Francisco.

It’s time to “Tell My Story”.

After launching the podcast at the start of this year I’ve found there are a lot of things I enjoy doing outside of WordPress. Of course I still heart WordPress in a BIG way and use it for everything, but there’s much more to what I do and why I do it. My online business skills have “grown up” (best way I can think of to describe it… even though I’m having more fun now than I ever did before) and I want to do more.

The workshop was hosted at a shared workspace in San Francisco (for which I showed up about 10 min. late… Thank You hwy 4… best laid plans, eh?) and was going to be recorded (as in video and would probably be a new course for Fizzle members).

When I say this was a workshop – it was. We didn’t just sit and listen, we did the work while we were there and it was BRILLIANT. As soon as I sat down I had a mic in my hand within about 2 min. giving my quick intro and oh so dull elevator pitch (something we also worked on during the workshop).

Here are a few points we covered in this 2 hr. workshop (which felt like we could have easily gone a few more hours. yep, it was that good):

Nail The Transformation

Qualifying Questions

Delivering Data

As someone who isn’t terribly fond of data (and kudos to those of you who are and are good at gathering it), this section gave me a whole new perspective on presenting data and the value it provides your audience.

I went to the workshop with the intention to focus on KimDoyal.com and felt a little like I “cheated” because I’ve been doing a lot of work on this brand before it even launches (novel idea, huh?). And the work I’ve been doing isn’t the busy work that is really more of a distraction (spending countless hours on colors, logo, website, etc.). It was the clarity ‘stuff’ that most people avoid like the plague.

Getting clear on:

- Who my audience is

- The value I bring to them

- What I want to create with this new brand

- How I’m going to treat this brand like a ‘business’ from day one

- And of course how I intend to have FUN with all of this

That’s the work I’m talking about.

It doesn’t “feel” like work because it doesn’t deliver an immediate, tangible result (as much as I’d like to say that I’m solely referring to personal experience here, my experience working with clients and coaching people tells me otherwise).

We went through each of these points with worksheets (I love me some worksheets! I don’t know why… think it’s that ‘tangible’ thing I can hold, y’know? Like I was ‘given’ something). And now of course I’m going to clean up my scribble and dive a little deeper with each of these. I’m going to be sharing some ‘qualifying questions’ to engage and build my audience over at KimDoyal.com (I’m such a geek… I want to answer my own questions…hmm… blog posts maybe?).

The Happy Hour after was hosted at a great restaurant close by and we were able to chat some more with people in the workshop as well as some additional people in the community. I’m hoping to see the new relationships I’ve developed blossom and I trust that they’ll grow exactly as they’re supposed to (I’m SO over expectations on the way things “should” be).

My takeaways from the in-person Fizzle Workshop – Telling Your Story

Get the BUCKET out of the house once in a while. Be social with NEW people too.
Engaging in person is always worth it.
Stay connected.
Use the training you’re paying for, LEARNING is part of creating and growing a business.
Taking the time to get clear on things truly makes showing up and doing the work so much simpler.
The Fizzle founders were just as nice in person as I expected (how many businesses do you know that incorporate “Honest” into their tagline?).
I’m sooooo grateful I don’t have to commute.

And finally, to wrap things up all nice & tidy, I’m totally going to plug Fizzle & the awesome community of creators who are part of this community. I’m currently working on the “Launch” course as I get ready to launch my new site, so make sure if you join to connect with me inside the community too.

By the way, you can join Fizzle for a whopping $1 trial. FOR REAL!

I can guarantee you if you show up inside you’re going to stick around. Oh, and my links in this post are referral links, which mean I get a discount on my membership if you join. Which is a perk for members only. Not too shabby! :-)

And a HUGE Thank You to Corbett, Chase and Caleb for hosting and creating something that simply rocks.

Filed Under: Kim Doyal, Marketing