Little hits of dopamine

Motivation is a funny thing. We can feel sluggish, depressed, tired and unmotivated towards the work we *know* we want/need to get done.

Why the tight job market we’re in might be your best opportunity to start a new business.

I read last week that a record number of people are leaving their jobs. They’re leaving because we’re in a tight labor market right now, and finding a better job is easy.

Stay Focused: The “What Are You Working On Right Now?” Trick

Tell me if this sounds familiar. You start working on a new task, which requires you to do some research or look something up.

The Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Blog

There’s no shortage of advice online about how to promote your blog. There’s lots of advice, and WAY too many tactics out there.

Productivity Hacks: Why they Rarely Stick, and Why they Matter Anyway

Any project or system that involves people, no matter how well-intentioned, eventually loses luster once the initial excitement and momentum wears off. Everything becomes a job after long enough, no matter how infatuated you were in the beginning.

Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy

Earlier this week I wrote a post for The Sparkline about five people who set big goals (like interviewing 100 people). Each of these people’s lives were forever changed by these simple goals.

The Intersection of Lifestyle and Meaning

Last week I sent out a brief survey, to make sure I’m doing a good job with the newsletter. Your responses were really helpful, and I learned a few interesting things.

Get Back on that Horse

We all fall off the horse once in a while. You committed to something with the best intentions, you even started strong, but now it’s been weeks since you did anything about it.

You Can’t Sprint a Marathon

My first day on the job as a consultant in a boutique Fortune 500 tech consulting firm went like this. I took the 6am flight from Portland to Houston, arrived at work groggy but got right down to business.

The Easy Money is All Gone

Do this, then do that. Watch for when this happens and make sure never to do that.

It’s not about what you know. It’s about what you *do.*

Execution is a powerful thing. Derek Sivers likes to say ideas are just a multiplier of execution.

Going Off Your Meds

In the most recent season of Homeland, the main character Carrie Mathison decides purposefully to stop taking medication that she uses to treat bi-polar disorder. She’s an ex-CIA agent and there’s an international terrorist catastrophe brewing.

“Someday” People

I remember back before I started my first business, the conversations colleagues would have about one day leaving our jobs to start something of our own. “We should leave and start our own business.

Take Nothing as Sacred

It's easy to fall into a trap in the day-to-day and week-to-week work we do. Small tasks and to-dos creep onto our lists and weigh on us, making progress towards our bigger picture harder and harder to achieve.

5 Ways to Increase Revenue from an Existing Product

Today we have a great question from listener Paul Minors: “I’d love some help with growing product revenue. I’d love to hear your advice around the steps you would take after launching a digital product to get more revenue from it.” This is a great question and something we spend a lot of time thinking about at Fizzle.

Email is STILL Essential for Growing a Business. Here’s How to Use it Wisely

Email is still one of the best tools for growing your business, but many people don’t understand how to really make it work. In today’s episode, I answer two very important listener questions about email.

What a Company Operating System is, and Why I’d Never Work Without One

In today’s episode, I share my approach to crafting one of the most important things to any business: the company operating system. Just like your computer has an operating system that defines how it functions, your business (even if you’re just a one person business) needs an operating system.

2015, a year I’ll never forget

We settled in to Portland and biked all over town. Scott & Chelsea visited in Mexico.

The Art of Knowing Yourself

When we think about the most important things in life we often think of health, relationships, experiences, accomplishments, wealth and abilities. But none of these things happen on their own.

Ep. 12: Why You Shouldn’t Move Your Blog to Medium, and Lazy Vs. Driven

In this week’s episode, we talk about some very interesting developments. First, the team over at Basecamp decided to move their 15-year-old blog called Signal Vs.

Need Some Motivation Right Now? Listen to This IMMEDIATELY

One of the most popular blog posts I’ve ever written is about motivation. It’s been read about a million and a half times.

Unicorns, Growth Hacking and Minimum Viable Products, Oh My!

Hey guys! Welcome to another episode of Lifestyle Business Weekly.

How many visitors or subscribers do you need to monetize your website?

Hey guys! Welcome back to Lifestyle Business Weekly.

What makes you so special anyway?

Hey guys! On today’s episode of the show, we’re talking about how to explain what makes your business special.

4 Simple Productivity Practices and Apps that Save Me Time Every Day (Ep. 9)

In today’s episode of the show, I share four simple practices and apps that improve my productivity every day. I’ve tried lots of productivity hacks over the years, and these are the ones that have stuck because they’re easy and effective.

What to Do When Your Content Goes Viral

Hey guys. Today we’re going to talk about what you should do when your content goes viral.

How to make money while you’re still learning a skill

Over the next week or two, I’m going to publish daily audio-only podcast episodes covering several of the excellent listener questions I’ve gotten recently. Our regular weekly episodes (including video) will still air on Wednesdays.

5 Powerful Short Videos to Help You Crush Self Doubt

I don’t like to talk about it, but I wrestle with self doubt almost every day. Before writing something or shooting a video, that feeling pops up, like “who are you to be making this thing.

How to Find a Great Business Name When Everything is Already Taken

Finding a name for your business is both important and HARD. On one hand, you want to find a name that elevates your business above the competition.

Ep. 7: Nine Essential Questions, Issues with Working from Home and The Last Mile

In today’s episode: nine essential questions to ask yourself when choosing a business idea, what’s lost when most people work from home, and how to conquer the last mile of a project. Listen to the audio stream here (or subscribe to the podcast in iTunes): Lifestyle Business Weekly is a show and weekly curated email for people interested in lifestyle business and independent entrepreneurship.

9 Essential Questions to Choose a Business Idea

You’ve heard it before. Ideas are a dime a dozen.

Ep. 6 – How happiness affects productivity and building a strong company culture

In today’s episode, we talk about happiness and productivity, building company culture and how I turn one piece of content into nine (and gain 550% reach for just a couple hours of effort). I really like how the visual effects turned out on this one.

Introducing The Podcast: Lifestyle Business Weekly with Corbett Barr

We’re five episodes deep into the Lifestyle Business Weekly video show, and now you can listen on the go. That’s right, we’ve turned the show into a podcast, and new episodes will be released each week!

7 Big Lessons from 10 Years of Entrepreneurship

Today’s episode of Lifestyle Business Weekly is a little different. This time, I’m sharing 10 of the biggest lessons I’ve learned about building independent businesses.

Kill Your Comfort Zone

Your comfort zone is holding you back. It’s the warm bed in the morning that you don’t want to get out of.

Lifestyle Business Weekly Episode 4: Nomad List and the Facebook Productivity Tax

In today’s episode: the best places to live and work around the world, building and working on remote teams and two viewer questions about social media. Or, listen to the audio stream here: Ask a question for an upcoming episode.

Scott Dinsmore, I Will Miss You Forever

The world lost one of the most exuberant, supportive, caring, generous and motivated people on Saturday. I lost a dear friend who will leave a hole in my heart forever.

Lifestyle Business Weekly Episode 3: A Roadmap, Comparing Yourself and Building a Business Around Your Ideal Lifestyle

It’s Episode 3! In this episode: A Roadmap for Small Business Success Comparing Yourself to the Wrong People Building a Business Around Your Ideal Lifestyle Or, stream the audio via SoundCloud here: Thank you all for the amazing feedback and comments on the first two episodes!

You’re Just One Person. Stop Comparing Your Work to Big Teams and Deep Pockets

I just launched the Lifestyle Business Weekly show, and I’m happy with how the first two episodes turned out. I’m hungry to make it better, but still happy with episode 1 and 2 as a starting point.

NEW! Introducing Lifestyle Business Weekly The Show

Publishing the Lifestyle Business Weekly email has been so much fun over the past two months. You’ve given me fantastic feedback, and the subscriber base is growing by leaps and bounds every week.

Toxic Culture in a Company of One

In the past couple of weeks since the big story about Amazon’s broken work culture, the web has been abuzz with stories of big companies with long hours, demeaning politics and impossible standards. As you may have read in the articles like Work Hard, Live Well, “the research is clear: beyond ~40–50 hours per week, the marginal returns from additional work decrease rapidly and quickly become negative.” Long hours backfire for people and for companies.

Don’t Find Yourself. Create Yourself.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

Little Wins Matter

When you’re in the middle of a big audacious project, it’s easy to get down on yourself. The feeling of finishing is renewing.

See You at Pioneer Nation?

I’ll be a speaker/coach/”trail master” at this year’s Pioneer Nation retreat, hosted by Chris Guillebeau and team on October 1-3, 2015. This year’s event is at The Resort at The Mountain, about an hour from Portland, OR.

How to Create a Vision for Your Life

I used to think it was a silly waste of time to think about a vision for my life. Who does that?

When Your Product Doesn’t Sell, Here’s Why

When you launch an online product, like an ebook or a course and get no real sales, the first step is to diagnose the problem. Generally, either: You didn’t have enough people visit the sales page, or People visited your site, but they weren’t convinced enough to buy, or Some combination of the above (not enough visitors combined with low conversions) From a totally-ballpark-sales-conversions-perspective, you might expect 1 out of every 50-200 people who visit your sales page to purchase something (a 0.5% to 2% conversion rate).

8 Standing Desk Options Under $639

I have used some form of standing desk for a little over four years now. I wrote about my experience for Zen Habits back in 2011 in this article: My Standing Desk Experiment.

While you weigh your options, someone else is already taking action.

Here’s the problem with carefully considering your options. No amount of thinking or research can ever ensure an outcome.

That yearning you have to be better and accomplish more? It never ends.

On the Fizzle team, we often find ourselves in a collective state of mind where we’re frustrated with our business and all we haven’t been able to accomplish yet. Yet I know people look at our business and just *wish* they could have built a fraction of what we already have.

The System

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle Most anything worth improving or accomplishing in life requires repetition and sustained focus.