In a hurry?
Invited guests can skip right to the guest submission form by clicking here.
First, Something You Need to Know About Kat
I, Kat Sturtz, hate seeing smart, passionate folks struggle with being stuck, stumped or stalled in their pursuit of small business success. I love helping them discover ways to bust past obstacles and hidden barriers and rock their unique path to success. Plus, I love showing them by example how to do it even when time, money, skills, and resources … or courage … are scarce.
The special guests featured on my show love helping others succeed, too. If that sounds like you, please keep on reading ….
How Fast Action Fridays Came To Be
The first episode aired April 4, 2014 using a free audio only conference call-in bridge line and minimal promotion to my followers on Facebook and my teensy email list.
It began on a whim as way to show my Rocking Your Path community that they had access to enough knowledge and all the free resources they needed to do a podcast or call-in show of their own. They just had to be willing to do it … to step forward into the scary unknown … to embrace the chance for success. Lack of expensive software or technical expertise or gobs of time could no longer be used as an excuse not to try.
The goal, for me and them, was to get from idea to start to done quickly.
Though the audio replay quality is poor, the call from that first ever show went okay, and within two weeks the format changed from 15 minutes with just me yakking away, to much like it is today — me interviewing special guests during an extended 30 minute time frame, and a few more each week listening live and catching the replays.
If you’re interested you can listen to that very first show here or read the blog post recap here. You can even access other early year show replays here and here. I’m proud of the diversity of my special guests and topics we continue to feature.
We’re in the Pictures Now
In January 2016, we switched from the audio-only call-in format to a revolutionary (and free) online video platform called Blab that had opened its doors in April 2015. Unfortunately, the widely popular and oh-so-easy-to-use and promote shows platform didn’t last long due to its passionate founders not anticipating Blab’s rapid growth along with the increasing costs to stay afloat. Their business model had failed to include an income revenue source. By August 2016, Blab was gone. Ouch!
But Zoom was, well, zooming. It was an easy transition to use a free Zoom account to continue hosting live shows, but soon the additional post-production and promotional tasks (so much of which had been handled behind the scenes by Blab) became too much of a drain on my time and energy. Solution: Switch to pre-recording interviews. Ta-dah!
Okay, so pre-recording didn’t give me back all my time, but it made the required tasks more time-manageable. Plus, I had both audio and video formats to promote. I could even delegate production and promotion tasks more easily if I wanted. That’s a win-win-win, right? Heck, Yes!
I might add that not only was I wise enough to save my original audio-only recordings, I took the split second of time between Blab announcing it was closing to door shut to download any remaining recordings and upload them to my still in its infancy then YouTube channel. There’s a growing playlist of Fast Action Fridays shows. Whew! Um, I mean Yay! Go check it out. Like and subscribe, too. Pretty please.
YouTube gurus preach reminding viewers to like and subscribe and hit that bell to turn on notifications. I rarely do. But, Yes, I do hope you’ll like and subscribe to my channel. 🙂
By the way, many I know still get by with the features included in a free Zoom account. I upgraded to the Pro level because I use it for so much more than pre-recording 30 minute Fast Action Fridays shows. You should check out Zoom for yourself if you haven’t an account yet. (Yes, that’s my affiliate link.) And, for those wondering, I have backups of show recordings saved elsewhere, too. Never keep all your eggs in one basket!
Admittedly, I never capitalized on FAF’s growing popularity early on as well as I could and should have. I’m okay with that since I fully embraced my choice of putting family over business for a while. It’s okay to do that, you know, and still find success. The secret is in accepting responsibility for the choices we make in life rather than look outside ourselves for people, things, situations to blame for holding us back.
So me, an early hare, became by choice a tortoise and stayed in the race. It’s August 2020 as I write this. My small business continues to grow. I’m comfortable devoting more time and effort to it now and that includes taking Fast Action Fridays off its latest self-imposed hiatus. The newest season of episodes aired beginning August 7th. Check out my interview with Nyota Gordon here.
The number of followers and fans continues to grow, and I’m eager to record more episodes, feature more fabulous guests, and continue to inspire more smart, passionate folks to rock their unique path to success.
Moving Forward and an Invite to Join Me
The inspiration for Fast Action Fridays was always designed to spark listeners into taking bigger bolder action by encouraging them to take a few quick short steps on some project or idea or procrastination hangup that currently had them feeling less powerful and productive than they really can be! Nothing about that has changed … including the low cost tech and skills needed to record, produce, and market a podcast style interview show like FAF.
Sure, I’m paying for some of the services I use now … but, it’s still possible to get started with a zero budget, some dedicated time, and a dash of simple tech skill. You can even start like I did with a simple free conference call phone account. Be sure to choose one that offers an option to record calls. Heck, even Skype or Google Meet could work!
Feel free to book a free chat with me if you want to discuss some strategies that could work for you if you’re eager to start your own show but have questions about getting it off the ground.
Will You Be My Next Guest? 🙂
Something else that hasn’t changed since I began Fast Action Fridays is my love of featuring guests who are up and coming or known experts in their field, as well as nervous newbies who are ready to step forward, speak up, and share their own favorite motivating tips, tools, and advice with my followers for the very first time.
It’s one way of honoring what I shared at the start of this post:
I hate seeing smart, passionate folks struggle with being stuck, stumped or stalled in their pursuit of small business success. I love helping them discover ways to bust past obstacles and hidden barriers and rock their unique path to success. Plus, I love showing them by example how to do it even when time, money, skills, and resources … or courage … are scarce.
– Kat Sturtz
Incidentally, my own speaking career started in the early 1970s way back during my family dairy farm days when I did some freelance writing for regional newspapers, specialty magazines, and cut my public relations teeth working with Michigan Farm Bureau. I even completed MFB’s spokesperson training for volunteers and did interviews with area agri-business folks that aired on MFB’s Farm and Garden television show on the channel out of Saginaw, Michigan.
BTW, … Hello, YES! … I am interested in being a guest on other shows, too. Go ahead and ask me!
The Fast Action Fridays Mission
- To provide viewers/ listeners with 30 minutes of motivating Quick Action tips, tools, and strategies to help them rock their unique path to success.
- Guests are asked to share 3 to 5 tips or strategies that listeners can put into action easily and quickly for a specific purpose. We focus on five broad categories: Productivity, Business Management (Tasks/Strategies), Marketing Management (Tasks/Strategies), Mindset and Motivation, and Managing Life and Business. FYI, I dislike referring to that last one as “balancing.” We juggle.
- Primary target audiences are home-based solopreneurs and small business owners looking for solutions to get past what currently has them stumped, stuck, or stalled growing a profitable business, as well as those ready to shift into higher gear. They are bone tired of leaking time, money, and resources!
Items Guests Supply Prior to Recording
While I take a casual and conversational approach to interviewing guests everything is easier for all involved with some organization and planning. Therefore, both invited and prospective guests are asked to send me a few things in advance. It’s best to have them ready before completing the Guest Information Form.
Here are the items I ask for:
- Your suggested interview topic and title. You may suggest more than one.
- Profile photo. Transparent background PNG preferred but Jpeg with background okay. Size no larger than 600 x 600 px
- Brief bio. A paragraph or two will do.
- Some fun or unusual facts about you. Two to five is ideal. These will be shared in the blog post about your episode.
- Link and description of a free evergreen resource you’d like to share.
— It’s okay if you have this associated with a funnel that offers a fee-based upsell or OTO. Image file (or link to where I can download it) of your resource is appreciated. Guests often send me a copy of their freebie so I don’t have to opt-in to review it.
— Have an affiliate program? That’s great. Give me details. However, that’s not a requirement to be a guest. Nor are you required to join my mailing list or Facebook group. Of course, I’d love to have you join both! 🙂 - Links to websites and social media accounts that you liked shared.
- OPTIONAL but LOVELY … if you have written up your topic and tip notes and can share those with me via email. Ahead of time is ideal but shortly after we record is okay, too.
Prefer to chat about being a guest first to see if we’re a good fit?
Feel free to schedule a free Get Acquainted Chat with me here. Be sure to note that you’d like to discuss being a guest on Fast Action Fridays. You are welcome to fill out the guest info form before we meet.
Guest Information form
Are you ready? Click here to go to the guest information form.
I’m looking forward to speaking with you soon. 🙂
