Franklin Taggart's Virtual Coffee Break

If you're a solopreneur or freelancer and you don't like marketing or promoting your product, service, or business, could that be having a negative impact on people's perceptions of you? I think so. My family and a few close friends call me a curmudgeon and it's not being used affectionately, but even I can share excitement and enthusiasm about what I do. If I couldn't, I shouldn't be doing this w...

I heard Seth Godin talk about how he was able to maintain his one blog post a day routing. He described a very simple system. He keeps a folder on his computer of very short articles on every idea that occurs to him and he never runs out of things to publish. I have another friend who writes one blog post a week and while his posts tend to be longer than Seth Godin's, the system he's developed is...

I'm wondering about the invisible barriers we put between ourselves and others. Trying to have a conversation with a computer in-between us. Trying to stay focused in a Zoom call with a room full of distractions and notifications surrounding us. Are we really there? Are we really listening? Are we really present? In a training many years ago I was shown very plainly that I wasn't a good listener,...

Happy Valentine's Day! Thoughts today about love and work. Getting away from the idea of loving what you do and focusing instead on loving THROUGH what you do. It's interesting when I change the focus of work from getting something out of it to delivering a better quality of life to people through it, it becomes much more satisfying and I get all I want from it. You? Those days when I'm burned out...

Here I am, banging the drum of "your business is as unique as your fingerprint" again. Partly inspired by Quiet Marketing: A Calm, Minimal Approach to Business and Online Visibility for Highly Sensitive Solopreneurs a new book by Danielle Gardner, I just want to shout again from the rooftops that no blueprint is going to fit your business perfectly. It's going to take time to find the tools, proce...

I only found out about Danielle Gardner in the past few weeks from a friend who heard her interviewed in Tad Hargrave's Marketing for Hippies group. I found her YouTube channel and watched several of her videos, particularly the ones on Human Design and the implications for Generator and Manifesting Generator types as they approach business. She also talked about her new book, Quiet Marketing: A C...

There may be one or two people who noticed I released the weekly interview episode a day early. I usually release those on Fridays to take advantage of the slow days in case I might show up on a chart somewhere. This week, I was in a pinch and decided to get it out a day early. Without too much detail, our pup, Vinnie had surgery yesterday and I wasn't able to find the bandwidth to make a Coffee B...

Alan Heymann has a knack for coaching fellow introverts, helping them find their superpowers in an extroverted world. Alan also specializes in coaching through transitions — such as the transition from individual contributor to leader, the transition into a larger and more complex role, or the transition into a different career. He brings a warm, open and energetic presence to his coaching clients...

Even the most talented people have to practice their craft. No exceptions. There are muscles to develop and patterns to internalize, actions to turn into habits, and mistakes to unlearn. No one is exempt from this. My clients who want to be good at business without having any business experience feel like they are failing, but they are just inexperienced. They expect to be good at sales and market...

Your introduction sets the tone for every connection you make afterward. What will people remember about you after you introduce yourself? Will it be that formulaic and boring elevator pitch you've struggled to write? Probably not. What if you were to make your introduction a quick delivery of something valuable that gives people an experience of you in your role and something to take with them in...

We all have busy times and somehow we need to carve out a little bit of time for marketing. In this video, I share a simple strategy for those weeks when I only have an hour to work with. Focus on one specific and clear offer, get the copy written for your offer first, make it short and sweet. Then to promote the offer, take advantage of a tool like Canva.com to create a simple social strategy, re...

I've had so many clients, especially at the Larimer SBDC who have come to me ready to throw in the towel on their business because marketing has been too taxing and not effective. I've had others who have worn themselves out trying to learn new communication and technical skills that they don't have time for so that they can be more visible across social media platforms. I'm not going to say you s...

Since being diagnosed with Graves Disease almost 14 years ago, I've lived with a predictably unpredictable physical condition. Rapid and steep energy fluctuations are common and metabolism or lack thereof makes exercise and weight loss seem impossible. I've learned to live with these challenges and make contributions to my community in spite of them, but there are days, like today, that are just c...

Eli Hans is a multi-passionate Renaissance man, having worked on his own for thirty-five years, reinventing his career several times, in television, special events production, as a voiceover actor, interior designer, life and business coach, holistic cancer coach, and his latest iteration as the writer and performer of his mostly one-man show: Out of The Blue, a Miraculous Musical. In 2009, he and...

A couple of thought-provoking questions from this morning's presentation on Marketing Lessons We All Learned In Kindergarten. First, how can we make social media a more life-enhancing, enriching experience? And how can we realize the power of social media tools to bring us more together instead of driving us further apart. No easy answers, but I have some initial places to start. In this Coffee Br...

If you're experiencing and lack or scarcity in your life or business, here's an experiment. It's based on a process therapist and speaker Barbara Sher used with encounter groups and other audiences for many years. The experiment is simple. Get very clear on the opportunity you want. Write it down or record yourself describing it in as great a detail as you can. Identify any obstacles you perceive...

The impending snow in Colorado has me thinking about preparedness. I'm not. I can't say that preparedness is one of my strong suits unless you count being prepared to improvise.  If the plows get the roads cleared quickly enough I'll be giving an in-person talk at Desk Chair Workspace here in downtown Loveland. My topic is Marketing Lessons We All Learned In Kindergarten. It's a call to get b...

There are certain things about life that we have very little control over. The inevitability of death, the basic level of intelligence we're born with, our personalities, and physical limitations are just a few of the cards we're dealt and have to learn to play with.  Everyone's hand is unique from everyone else's so the strategy that works for anyone else will have to be adapted or scrapped...

You have to try things in order to learn. Sometimes the things you try turn out as well or better than you'd hoped, sometimes they fall short. In this Coffee Break, Franklin shares some thoughts about things he's learned about failure. The successful software developer whose sophomore product tanked after nearly three years' investment of time and money. The well-known motivational coach and speak...

Introversion is not a disability. Seems like there are a bunch of advice videos for how to deal with introverts. I think it's time to talk about how to live with extroverts. There needs to be a weekend workshop on how to be quiet and reflective, or how to live with less stimulation. The inspiration for this topic is that I live with two extrovert people and very likely one extrovert dog. The need...

People who work for themselves have a unique opportunity to build and grow businesses in their own way and on their own terms. For many of them, there is no blueprint for the building process, and they find themselves getting stuck with unanticipated circumstances and challenges. In those times, self-employed people can feel like there is no help available and that they are completely alone with t...

I gave a talk today and shared a strategy I use for creating business opportunities. Central to my strategy is my motto: Show Up, Pay Attention, Participate. I've found that when I do these things as a regular part of my routine, good things tend to come out of it. So I adopted the motto to remind me of my mission and my desire to serve. I love my motto so much tath I put it on merch. My friend, D...

If you're experiencing lack or scarcity in your business or work, one suggestion I have is to watch how isolated you are. One thing that a business, like we humans, needs is connection. We're designed to thrive in groups of all sizes and shapes. And we're also given a natural process to recover from trauma and pain that often includes periods of isolation. In this Coffee Break, I'm thinking about...

I just cleared snow off our sidewalk and driveway and to my surprise found a metaphor I needed relating to a project I need to finish with some urgency. I love shoveling snow but as I've gotten older, it takes longer and I need more breaks. Today, I finished the walks pretty easily but I still had the driveway left to do, which takes a lot more energy. The only way to finish jobs like this is to k...

Like many solopreneurs and freelancers, I've fallen for the belief that you have to be everywhere in order for your marketing to reach more people - every social media channel doing posts, stories, shorts, videos, live videos, reels, carousels, albums, polls, emojis, 24/7/365. And then you have to have a blog, a podcast, an email newsletter, a YouTube Channel, a snail mail publication, and a quart...