Corbett Barr Interview

Could you tell us a little about yourself – how you ended up starting up Fizzle?

Fizzle grew out of a prior business. I ran a popular marketing blog called Think Traffic for several years. At the same time, I had been producing online courses around blogging, growing traffic and affiliate marketing.
Eventually instead of creating more and more independent courses, my team and I decided to pull everything under one all-inclusive platform aimed at helping people earn a living online doing something they care about. Fizzle now includes over 30 courses, in addition to weekly group coaching and a vibrant members community.

What do you think the most important part of building your brand was, in retrospect?

There’s no question. Blogging was the most important brand-building thing we focused on, for the first several years. Then, in 2014 we started The Fizzle Show podcast. The podcast has since become as important to our brand as blogging is.

If you had to pick the top three things people do wrong, the things holding them back from success, what would those be? How would you suggest people avoid these mistakes?

The three most common mistakes people make when trying to build a business or support themselves independently are:

1. lack of focus,
2. solving unimportant problems, and
3. trying to do too much. The key to success as an entrepreneur is to focus on creating a simple solution to an important problem.

If you could get one message back to yourself, when you were starting out, what would you tell yourself?

Start your career working for people who embody what you want to be one day. Even if you crave becoming an entrepreneur, don’t overlook the value of treating your job as an apprenticeship. Learn from the best and then go on to build great things yourself.

How do you maintain a work/life balance working for yourself, in the 24/7 reality of the internet?

I spend winters in Mexico where the pace of life makes work/life balance much easier to achieve. When we’re back living in the states, I try to be mindful of my energy levels and use fun/play to recharge the batteries and avoid burnout as necessary.

You also have a personal website where you blog about what it takes to do work that matters – do you like writing and how much time do you actually spend blogging?

I love writing, although the demands of my business don’t leave as much time for writing as I would like. When I first got started, I spent 10-15 hours a week writing. These days I usually only have a few hours to spend writing each week.

We don’t expect you to spill any trade secrets (unless you want to, then by all means. . .) but what’s the next big thing for you?

Within Fizzle, we’re looking into ways to empower members to support each other using the power of small peer groups. We’re also constantly working to improve our course library and roadmap.

We like to wrap up with a bit of fun, so . . . What’s your favorite ’90s jam?

I graduated high school in the 90s, so that’s a tough one! If we’re talking R&B/hip-hop, I’ll have to go with Ginuwine’s “Pony.” If we’re talking grunge/rock, I’ll go with Nirvana’s “All Apologies.”

Finally, and this one is important, so please pay attention: What do you think cats dream about?

Cucumbers

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