Franklin Taggart's Virtual Coffee Break

A strange coincidence makes me wonder if I'm seeing a behavior pattern emerge. Seems like I'm seeing more than a few people reaching the end of a creative project but there's one last step that needs to be taken before they launch and that step is taking weeks and sometimes months to complete. Another strange coincidence is that these last steps often take only a few minutes to complete without di...

For some of us, there's a period of time as we near the completion and launch of something we've made and we become hyper-sensitive to how people react and respond. We all want to be liked and accepted. It's burned into our DNA to care on some level what other people think of us, even though some of us suggest we're not bothered. In this Coffee Break, Franklin Taggart shares some memories of times...

Today held a variety of fulfilling activities, good conversations, productive work, and a surprise visit from a friend. Ending a day like today with a satisfying kind of tired feels just right. I have two short rituals that I do most nights. Sometimes they're easy, other times not so much. Tonight, the only challenge is staying awake long enough to finish them. I share these rituals in today's Cof...

Reflections on Fathers Day about being a dad and having a dad and the strange mix of what that all means. Remembering Papa Dave today. He's been gone a few years, and I still see things I wish I could tell him. I see pictures on his hometown's Facebook page where I'm certain he would know the people and places, and I find other things I know he'd never seen but would have loved to. We had our pain...

After one whirlwind week followed by a four-day Summer cold, I have a whole bunch of stuff to do. At this point, I don't have the energy or time to be too precious about organizing and identifying priorities. It all matters, and It's all overdue. The method called for right now is to make a list and do the first thing, then another, then another. So that's what I'm doing. It's a blunt-force strate...

Do you ever feel like your own gifts and talents aren't easily understood or accepted by other people? Does that make you feel like you have to keep them hidden or avoid using them? From a young age, Bronwyn Jane knew that she had abilities that other people didn't and that others often were judgmental and afraid of what she was able to do most naturally. She also lived in a religious and rural se...

In the couple of days since I released the Elevator Pitches That Don't Suck Course, I've had a few messages from people who talked about the difficulty they experience knowing what to say when they're asked to talk about themselves, even in a simple introduction. I know how that feels. In this Coffee Break, I have some reflections and insights to share and a couple of suggestions that people in th...

If you've been trying to download your Boost Your Business Bundle goodies but haven't been able to get on the website, it's not a problem with your computer. The company that hosts the website had a major service interruption today. It should be corrected now, so get on there and start downloading to your heart's content! If you haven't registered for the Bundle yet, you still have a couple of day...

I feel lucky to have gotten this far and to have only a few regrets. I don't want to dwell on it, but there is a link between one of my top regrets and the course I just launched. If I could go back and do one thing differently, I would choose to have been more assertive in creating opportunities and inviting people to join me. I had a habit of waiting to be invited to join people, so I was left o...

With the full week that I just had, I ended up with a Summer cold that came on yesterday with a mission to get me to slow down. I did get all the things done that I needed, along with playing two gigs in 100-degree heat. Today I've been a slow mover, and I sound like the definition of congestion. Reflections today are taking me to see the end of my professional music trail. I'm getting close to ma...

As we do routine tasks repeatedly, habits are formed, and the primary reason this happens is to give us the ability to accomplish routine tasks with minimal expenditure of energy.  We haven't had to think about how we get dressed since we were small, and thankfully, we don't have to relearn those things every day. The same can be said for our routines in creating and delivering our work. Can...

That's not the kind of finishing I'm talking about, Smutty. I enjoy seeing one of my most recent large projects completed. That feeling is valuable, even if I never sell one copy. I felt the same way when my first and only CD was finished. Two years after starting, there was an item in my hands with my name on the cover. That's the feeling I'm talking about. There's a sadness I feel when people ha...

Jennifer Urezzio knew she had some out-of-the-ordinary abilities when she was young, and she realized early that other people wondered how she "did that." As an employee at a high-level PR firm, she used her gifts while keeping them under the radar of her coworkers. In giving a talk at a conference about purpose, she began to explore the existence of different soul languages after a large number o...

I'm scheduling this episode to release later than I made it. I'll be attending a Slipknot, Horror, and Cypress Hill concert with my son when it shows up online. I don't remember the last metal concert I went to, probably would have been the early 80s, and I honestly don't recall that I've been to a live rap show. This will be interesting. It triggered a memory of a concert my dad took me to in 197...

I did it again. I optimistically said yes to too many things, and now I've got a calendar full of responsibilities and three deadlines among them. In this Coffee Break, I reveal my age-old habit of only looking at the day and time that's being requested without looking at the adjoining days and times.  They're all good things, and I'll make it through, but I may need to take some time off aft...

We've all heard the ancient secret advice to fake it until you make it. I first heard it about thirty years ago in a twelve-step meeting. I remember then thinking it was brilliant. Now, not so much. The creative process doesn't give wiggle room for fakery. It requires real time, dedication, attention, and effort. That can't be faked. In this Coffee Break, Franklin Taggart tells a story of a partic...

I've had a couple of clients recently who've asked for help learning how to edit videos for their social media. It's their first time using this kind of software and the processes and language are completely new to them. It all sounds foreign. It called to mind the time when I decided to add digital recording to my skill set. I bought state-of-the-art equipment and joined a few online bulletin boa...

It's been an exciting year! At the beginning, I made two commitments. The first is to upload one new idea a day to my YouTube channel, a commitment I've kept. It's been fun to see the numbers grow! The second commitment was to devote more time to production than to consumption. I've stuck with that one, too and one culmination is about to be released. I've been working on finishing three online co...

I've been making a 2-page form this morning that has over 700 form fields, mostly checkboxes that have to be aligned and distributed evenly on the pages. It's work that requires attention to detail, but overall it's not something that requires my imagination. The good news for my imagination is that building the form gives it a chance to roam where it wants to (sorry, just watched a B-52s video)....

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Thanks to Linda Eskridge of https://couturegifting.com for the wonderful coffee, mug, and treats! Made this morning's Coffee Break extra special. In the Break today, I am talking about my habit of buying books and courses and getting about halfway through with them then getting distracted or bored and moving on to other things while never actually doing anything the book or course was teaching. Th...

Go here for registration and affiliate info: https://www.franklintaggart.com/2022/06/Boost-Your-Business-Bundle-2022.html I'm excited to be a contributor to the Boost Your Business Bundle this year!  The driving force behind this amazing collection of tools is Lynn Neville, a content and marketing strategist who helps coaches and mentors increase their online visibility and engagement with ey...

We're down to one car in our family, at least for a little while. My 2000 Ford Windstar van costs more to fix than it's worth and it will be going to a good cause in the next few days. The pandemic revealed a few fallacies about how much we can get done at home and now I find myself evaluating invitations to leave home much more carefully. And I also am looking much more critically at every item o...

If you struggle with energy fluctuations as you're working, here is a simple system I use to make decisions about how I spend my time. Many of the people who hire me have challenges with physical stamina, as I do. Dealing with an autoimmune thyroid disorder is a daily crapshoot when it comes to predicting energy levels. I have to do this on a moment-by-moment basis. As far as I'm concerned energy...

Your "About Me" page is the second most visited page on your website. For the longest time, I made the mistake of thinking that it needed to be about me. That's only partially true. The About Me page is the place where people are learning whether or not they want to work with you and your business. If it's not moving in that direction, there's a problem. In this Coffee Break, Franklin Taggart talk...