Franklin Taggart's Virtual Coffee Break

Solopreneurs, freelancers, and other small business owners often find themselves stretched thin when it comes to marketing. There are too many channels to choose from, the learning curve to gain new skills can be steep, and it's too expensive to hire an agency to handle it for you.    You also may find that it's difficult to find enough time to adequately market your business and that is...

I must have struck a nerve. Some Passionistas told me I'm full of something icky. Well, Ok then. I think they didn't watch the whole video. They only read the headline. So just in case you're wondering, I love passion. I enjoy it every day. But following your passion still isn't a great idea for career decision-making.    Even the best hitters in baseball miss over two-thirds of their at...

If you have a product, service, or program priced over $3500.00, Yifat Cohen will help you sell many more of them. Yifat is a digital marketing pioneer and innovator who helps entrepreneurs create strategies and systems that routinely deliver remarkable revenue returns. How does she do it? In this interview she lets us look behind the curtain (spoiler alert: it’s all about using technology to buil...

I don't think "follow your passion" is good career advice. At least for me, it hasn't been. We make the common mistake of thinking that our passion is caused by an activity or a circumstance, but passion, like every other emotion, is created by the quality of our thinking from moment to moment.  The feeling of flow, presence, and transcendence is a simple shift in your consciousness to a stat...

Tell me truly - are you spending most of your time producing or consuming?   I had some personal revelations late last year about my own habits. I'd been frustrated for a long time about not being able to focus and get things done. I did a time audit late last year and found that I was spending way too much time on Facebook and email and blog posts - basically in a consumption mode - instead...

This is a legitimate concern that some people face. Honestly, I don't worry about it. In these cases, I encourage people to spend their time on activities they enjoy with people they enjoy and let that be enough.  And I also don't think it's essential to know or name your creative calling. There are billions of people who live happily ever after without ever knowing.   The time I think i...

A couple of Devil's Advocates have written with questions about whether or not atheists, agnostics, and other spiritual skeptics have a creative calling. I believe they do and in this Coffee Break, I tell you why.   Call it whatever you want, every human being is capable of their own unique kinds of creativity and each human being finds ways to express these unique gifts in ways that are mean...

Creative Calling is more than just talent. It's about more than choosing something to do or finding an enjoyable activity. And following your passion is misleading (that's a nicer way of saying that it's a load of doodoo.)   In this Coffee Break, Franklin Taggart talks about learning about how he put limits on his own calling that kept him from realizing its power. Your calling can be deliver...

You have a creative gift and calling. That doesn't especially mean that you have an artistic gift or calling. Creative and artistic aren't the same thing.   In this Coffee Break, Franklin Taggart talks about the distinction he discovered when his music career was disrupted by a health crisis.    #creativity #yourcreativegifts #lifepurpose

Businesses need video. The problem is videos take time, talent, and technology which makes you feel overwhelmed, confused, and falling behind. Old fashioned marketing isn't going to cut it. You need a multi-platform digital presence that includes video.   Sheryl Plouffe brings 25 years of experience in broadcast media to help six and seven-figure businesses raise the bar in their video market...

Does it feel like there is a spiritual purpose to the work you do? Do you, like me, have a wincing reaction to the concept of spiritual calling? When you hear the words "spiritual calling" what do they mean to you?   In this coffee break, I have some reflections on this topic as I've come to terms in the past couple of years that a big part of my work is helping people discover and align with...

Creative people often have many more ideas than they have time. Projects can easily start to feel overwhelming as we start to move out of the idea stage and into the creating itself. I have struggled with this for years. Finally, I found a simple time structure that's helped me start to get more creative projects finished. In this coffee break, I share what I've learned.   #creativity #projec...

We've talked about what you want to be known for and what specialties of yours you want people to remember. In this coffee break, we talk about another important aspect of niching and branding - core values.    Core values, like passion, can be easily misunderstood. I think core values are the qualities and activities that enliven and animate us. They energize and attract. If we act out...

In yesterday's coffee break, I asked what role you want to be remembered for. Today, I build on the same questions, but I want to know which specialty you want people to associate with you and how do you communicate it?    Part of your business niche or audience identity comes from knowing your own specialty and being able to articulate it in a way that people will remember and understan...

Today on the Coffee Break I'm thinking about how people tend to only create one association in their minds for each other. People tend to think of me in one of a few roles, but never all three. A common challenge for people in new roles or organizations is helping people see and remember them in a new way.   In marketing, a lot of importance is put on positioning your business as the one to r...

I'll be speaking at the Soulful Entrepreneur Summit coming up January 24-28. My topic is Community: The Source of All Opportunity. I'd like to invite you to the summit. Prices start at free so you can attend at no cost but time. Check out the lineup at getsoulfulsuccess.com.  We are made for community and connection.  Sometimes in business, I feel like we can get too focused on the linea...

Are you one of the growing number of entrepreneurs who experience their business as an expression of their spirituality? Do values like passion, compassion, and joy drive the work you do in the world? Is meaning just as important to your bottom line as revenue? If so, The Soulful Entrepreneur Summit is an event you need to attend. Alison Proffit and Amanda Mundo launched the first Soulful Entrepre...

We've been talking about working with social media algorithms. One of the ways you can learn what types of content algorithms prefer is to do some simple testing. In this coffee break, I have a couple of simple suggestions for ways you can test the performance of your content.   The Care and Feeding of Your Social Media Algorithm is this Saturday, January 8th, 2022 from 9 AM-Noon Mountain Tim...

The topic for today's coffee break came from a question sent by my friend, Amy. She asked if it was really worth her time to figure out what a social media algorithm wants. Great questions and the answer isn't cut and dried. Check out the reply here.   Enrollments are open for Saturday's Care and Feeding of Your Social Media Algorithm workshop on Zoom. If you can't attend the live workshop, y...

I'm surprised by how many of my clients don't track the performance of their social media posts. It doesn't take analytical wizardry to learn what kinds of posts are performing better than others. In this coffee break, I walk you through a simple process to identify some important statistics and patterns that will help you understand which of your posts the algorithm is favoring. This helps you ma...

Today on the Coffee Break, we're talking about what algorithms do and why it's important for businesses and marketers to make friends with them rather than fight them.  They're learning about us constantly then taking what they learn to build more experiences we'll want to have.   If your posts aren't getting much response, the main thing to wonder is what can be changed to satisfy...

I get almost daily inquiries from people about why their social media posts aren't being seen. Most of them haven't heard about algorithms, and if they have, they've heard mostly negative things. In this Franklin Taggart's Virtual Coffee Break, we ask and answer the question, "What is a Social Media Algorithm?" and we learn why that matters to businesses and marketers.   The main thing to kno...

I'm feeling energized and optimistic going into 2022. One new commitment is to upload a coffee break vidpod every day this year. They'll be short videos on a variety of topics and points of view. I'm also reintroducing my monthly workshop series after a five-year hiatus. The first workshop will be live on Zoom on Saturday, January 8th, 2022 on Zoom. We'll be learning how to play along with social...

Are you feeling like technology is putting more distance between you and the people and communities who matter to you? Has all of this virtual reality really delivered the kinds of connection we need to thrive? Is content really something that brings us together, or is it a distraction from real connection? Audrey Holst and I departed from our standard interview format and had a good conversation...

Understanding your strong innate talents and those of others has a wealth of benefits for entrepreneurs, businesses, and organizations. From building exceptional teams to better communication to identifying your best opportunities, clarifying and refining personal strengths and talents has both immediate and long-term payoffs. CliftonStrengths™ is a powerful assessment tool that will help you iden...