Fizzle.co is supposedly a “training” resource – but for me it’s all about the community.
Why I joined Fizzle and Tips for using the Community to save time – not waste it.
Full disclosure: I am a member of Fizzle.co, (and plan to stay that way for a long time!) Check out my honest review of the community below – I’ve also included some great tips for getting the most out of it! I also get a discount on my membership if you sign up through a link on this page, so if you do, thanks! (But trust me, I’d be a member forever even without the discount!
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Best for: |
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People & Platform: |
Fizzle is the brainchild of Corbett Barr, Caleb Wojcik and Chase Reeves.It’s community is supported by a comprehensive forum, with the ability for members to post status updates, “friend” one another, create, respond to, and follow threads. It’s intuitive, complete and most importantly, very active. Nowadays Caleb has moved on to other things and the team has grown to include Barrett Brooks and Steph Crowder. |
Pricing: |
As of this writing, the first month is only $1. After that, it’s $35 a month. |
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Join Fizzle.co
Come for the Community, Stay for the Community
I joined Fizzle.co in late 2013 and never turned back. Here’s my story.
A Tale of Three C’s
Like most other folks, I came across the three C’s (Corbett Barr, Caleb Wojcik and Chase Reeves) through various other folks in the online business community and found myself listening to their podcast. They mentioned their Fizzle.co membership site from time to time, but I wasn’t interested in joining because I was BURIED in information and the last thing I needed was more “training.”
So I did what any reasonable person would do. I kept listening to their podcast and started following the three on Twitter. Meanwhile, Chris and I kept our heads down and built our business, one video, one page, one product at a time. We didn’t know anyone else in Online Business and certainly didn’t know anyone in the online community. So we just kept working.
On Podcasts and around the community, we kept hearing about conferences that folks were attending, and the great people they were meeting. We decided to buy tickets to New Media Expo for January 2014. Tickets bought, we put our heads back down and kept working.
The Spark
Then, in late November I happened to see this:
Now I don’t know about you, but when a man in a banana sweater invites me to Happy Hour, I go!
Happy Hour with the Fizz Crew
I convinced Chris to join me (certain that I’d have NOBODY else to talk to) and we wandered into the restaurant in the Mission, awkwardly clutching our free eventbrite tickets.
And then we started talking to people. Real people. These weren’t like the folks at my work who thought it was “cute” that we had a blog – or Chris’ coworkers who simply couldn’t comprehend how he could have a website. These were real people doing real, interesting things. They GOT it.
Knowing Corbett and Chase loved cocktails, I started the conversation with them and the rest just fell into place. By the end of the evening I’d met all three of the Fizzle guys, John Corcoran and Dan Gamito, among many others. The variety of interesting businesses that people were creating was incredible to me, and inspiring.
That evening, driving home from the meetup, two important things happened:
- We decided to launch our Cocktail Design course for pre-release and just build it as we go. Inspired by the people at the meetup, we were ready to stop being people who “are going to build a thing” and start being people with a thing for sale.
- We decided to join Fizzle. The community won us over. And maybe this way we’d know someone when NMX came along!
It’s important to note: I still had no interest (or time) at this point for any more “online business training” my decision to join Fizzle was for the people – not the training.
I’ve been a Fizzler ever since, and can honestly say that this is how I feel each month when I get my invoice. I have no doubt the community is worth the cost of entry.
A Review of the Fizzle Community: You get What you Give
There are several great Fizzle Reviews out there, so instead of just talking about the features, I’d like to talk about the features and how to make the most of them. I hope you will find this even more helpful as a result!
I joined Fizzle for the community – I had zero time for additional training, so for me it was all about meeting the people who are doing the work, not just talking about it. But I was sold (see story above) by the promise of a great community, so I was in!
When you [eafl id=813 name=”Fizzle” text=””], you’re immediately welcomed by a gif of the Fizzle guys and an introductory email. The email is more than just “thanks for your money!” Rather, it’s a guide to getting started. [su_tooltip position=”north” content=”a very nice robot, might I add”]Robot Autoresponder Corbett[/su_tooltip] suggests taking the “Defining your Audience” course, filling out your profile and introducing yourself to the community.
Introduce Yourself:
I’m absolutely aligned with Robot Corbett here – in fact, in my opinion introducing yourself is probably the most important step in getting involved with the community. Why?
- It gets you over the “first post” heebie jeebies. Just do it. Write something about yourself and hit “Post”. You don’t get to think too hard, and now you have something out there in the Forums. (That wasn’t so bad, was it?)
- Your profile lists “Topics I’ve Started”, meaning folks can refer back to your Introduction topic in the future and learn more about you. Since you’ll be super active in the community, this will come in handy!
- The [su_tooltip content=”I actually did math for this. That’s how much I like you!”]average[/su_tooltip] Introduction post gets ~5 replies. That’s 5 new people you just met! Not bad for a dollar, eh?
Getting Involved
Here’s a little insider info: there are a lot of people introducing themselves on Fizzle. And that’s great! It’s wonderful to see the Fizzle community growing. But that’s just the first step. Introducing yourself on Fizzle is NOT going to mean you now know the whole community and everyone’s going to start sharing your posts across social media. It’s just an introduction. And what do you do after being introduced to someone you care about in real life? You invest time and effort in the relationship by staying in touch and helping them where possible. So how do you do that in Fizzle?
Status Updates
Fizzle has the option to post your own status updates and see others. Status updates are posted in plain view on the main “Forums” page, so they are very visible to the whole community. They are a great low-effort way to tell folks what you’re up to and see what they’re doing as well – and also a great way to help people! Often folks will ask questions or mention things they are struggling with – a quick comment can go a long way to help get them out of their rut. 
Post your own status updates, and engage with others – it’s a great way to get exposure and start to build relationships with all of the other Fizzlers.
The Forums
There are lots of different forums – everything from “On topic” discussion to “Shameless Self Promotion” and “Share your Success”. Being active in the community is a great way to build relationships with the other people there who are also building their online businesses. Here are a couple ideas:
- Forum: “On-Topic Forum”
This forum is filled with “on-topic” chatter. It’s all about everything from landing pages to SEO to Social media strategy. Which means it’s also filled with questions about everything you’d need to know about building an online business. Chances are pretty good you will be able to answer some questions here from time to time – so take a minute and help out! Of course, feel free to post your own questions as well. - Forums: “Get Feedback on your Idea” and “Shameless Self Promotion”
Both of these forums are all about feedback. Ideas are vetted in the “Get Feedback on your idea” forum, and “Shameless Self Promotion” is to get people’s thoughts on things you’ve done. But remember – feedback goes both ways! Stop by these forum and help someone by giving your perspective. Is their landing page convincing? How’s the audio on their podcast? A small comment can go a long way to help a fellow Fizzler. - Forum: “Share your Successes”
Online business has its ups and downs, and sometimes it’s hard to remember to celebrate the successes. Here’s a great spot to stop in and give someone a virtual high-five. I think you’ll find it’s a nice pick-me-up for you too!
[su_note note_color=”#FFFFE0″]Pro-tip:
Post something? Get extra eyes on it by also putting the link to your post in a status message.[/su_note]
Work with Fizzlers:
Lots of Fizzlers are building service businesses or offering digital products, and to get some preliminary eyes and testimonials, they’ll offer them to other Fizzlers for free or a steep discount. “Work with Fizzlers” is actually a forum, but I wanted to mention it separately because I think it’s an incredible added value to be able to get other Fizzlers to provide testimonials OR to get free or discounted services.
Save Yourself Some Time
All of the above probably makes it sound like Fizzle will take up a bunch of time. But having access to a community of like-minded folks can actually be a great way to crowdsource solutions that would otherwise have taken hours to solve. Here are some examples of scenarios where Fizzle saved me loads of time:
- I couldn’t (for the life of me) figure out how to do something in Facebook’s Power Editor. I posted in the forums and Tony Rulli replied in minutes, answering my question and solving my problem – saving me from more agonizing hours of trying to Google it.
- I needed an outside perspective on a Sales Page I was creating. So I posted a screenshot in the forums and received dozens of incredibly useful replies which resulted in some quick changes that (I believe) made a big difference. Who knows how much time it would have taken me to get that kind of feedback outside of Fizzle?
But Wait, There’s More!
This is the part that surprised me about Fizzle. Disregarding the forums, training, and status updates, there’s another incredible way to engage with the community.
Fizzle Fridays:
Nearly every Friday, the Fizz guys host a “Fizzle Friday” session, which is essentially a Webinar mastermind session. Since the first time I joined, this has become the highlight of my week.
In the last three weeks I have:
- Discussed launch strategy & podcasting with Caleb
- Chatted about optimal pricing with Corbett
- Reminded Chase to wear pants
Hint: Get there early! Only the first 6 get “webcam” privileges, and 25 is the max who can also join audio + chat.
In-Person Events:
Remember that Happy Hour I went to last November? That was hosted by the Fizz Three, and was free to all Fizzle Folks. Just a month or so later, Fizzle hosted two group meetups at New Media Expo, and I am already hearing plans in the works for other conferences this year. There is no better way than meeting in-person to see what people are up to and really get to know the community.
I almost Forgot – Training!
The Fizzle home page emphasizes training so much that it actually convinced me that Fizzle was NOT good for me for a long time. After all, I was up to my eyeballs already, and certainly didn’t have time for more training or more things to do.
But after joining, I found a way to sneak a course or two into my weekly schedule and it’s really made a big difference. Instead of piecing together a dozen articles to build a launch strategy, I just took the course, and did what Caleb told me to do. I was surprised to find that the course actually didn’t impact my overall workload because they reduced my research time overall.
So don’t discount the training like I did. It’s definitely worth the time.
Consider Fizzle – It’s definitely worth it.
In conclusion, Fizzle has introduced me to dozens of people in my online community who I never would have otherwise met. It’s given me free coaching sessions with all three of the Fizzle crew, complimentary and given me a sounding board for
Come for the community – and maybe try the training too? A little effort will get you “in the door” and engaging with a [su_tooltip position=”north” content=”I made up this number!”]thousand[/su_tooltip] great online entrepreneurs.
Join Fizzle.co
Psst – if you join, come and “Friend” me! Search for “Julia Tunstall” in the Members Section.
