Franklin Taggart's Virtual Coffee Break

I was asked today how I make these videos and podcasts so quickly. The short answer is that I cut corners. I don't make unique thumbnail images, my editing is light at best, I don't care if I say um or stammer, and I use the same templates daily for videos, images, and descriptions. The tools I use are Camtasia video recording and editing software from Camtasia, Canva Pro templates for graphics, a...

Getting ready for my weekly book discussion with a friend Monday morning. We've been reading a couple of good ones. Most recently, we've been reading Originals by Adam Grant and The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker. Both are beautifully written. Originals is more in line with my interests, and I enjoy following Adam Grant on social media. His posts are consistently worth reading. The Art of Gather...

More and more entrepreneurs are discovering that their quick-start tendencies, their fast-moving attention, and their attraction to doing things their own way instead of following convention are indicators of neurodiversity. For many, this realization brings an understanding of why past situations may have been so difficult for them. Ross Murker's is one of these stories. After beginning to suspec...

Sharing the podcast panel today at Founded in FoCo, I was struck by how each of us on the panel had been through major path changes in our lives and careers. In our own way, each of us had decided to turn our backs on convention and move in a self-determined direction. And just before the panel, I'd had a wonderful catch-up conversation with a friend I hadn't seen in a few years. I was struck by a...

I've been asked three times this week if it's too late to get into content marketing, or more specifically, YouTube or podcasting. My answer is no, it's not too late. The days of easy audience building on those channels may indeed be a thing of the past, but there is still room for every unique voice out there, especially if they have a new angle to share or a specialty that hasn't been widely dis...

I'll be participating in a panel discussion on podcasting this Friday, September 30, 2022, for the Founded in FoCo event. If you're located in Northern Colorado and would like to attend, the free event is detailed here: https://foundedinfoco.com In getting ready for the panel, I've been going over my own experiences in podcasting. I did my first in 2010 as a part of a home recording content channe...

Some of us believe that we can turn our successes into formulas and that if we can just figure out what people want to see and hear, they'll want to consume the content we create. We study analytics to see any patterns of predictable behavior to replicate what has already been successful, only to find that we could release the exact same video on two different days and get two entirely different r...

Don't worry about the future. Learn to find a better feeling right now. It's amazing to see how the body-mind resets itself automatically when the fixated focus of our awareness lets go of a troubling thought. Today I'm working on taxes. My first reaction to taxes is usually dread. I dig up old memories of not being prepared, owing more money than I had, and facing penalties and debt. Remembering...

What if you don't know what you should be doing? Or if you don't have a clear sense of your life's purpose? Or what if it's no big deal and you just need to do anything for money for a little whole? All good questions that are the topic of today's Virtual Coffee Break. If you're at a place where you don't know what's next, but you do know you need to change direction, there are a few things I'll e...

Today, I visited Grace Yoga and Wellness in Loveland, Colorado, a business owned by my friends Nicole and Ryan Murphy. I've been inspired by their story since I've known them, but today I'm even more inspired after seeing what their business has become. To learn more about them and the business they've created, I'm going to recommend visiting their website, https://lovegraceyoga.com   You can...

Friday potpourri... Sometimes we need to find part-time or full-time work to do to cover financial bases while we build a career, a business, or finish a passion project. My encouragement is to think strategically about the jobs you apply for and see if they can be one of the stepping stones in the direction you're already going. Want to be a professional speaker? Look for jobs within organization...

The most common challenges I both experience and hear about social media are that it's overwhelming and difficult to keep up with. It can be repetitive work with mundane tasks lined up for days. Today's guest offers an option many may find helpful in controlling their social media task list. Jess Kotzer has been involved in digital marketing for several years and has discovered many tasks that can...

A warm and blessed Autumnal Equinox to you! Today actually felt like Fall here - a high temp of 58F, some steady afternoon and evening rain, and the desire for something warm for dinner all seemed seasonally appropriate. It reminds me that I get busy this time of year as people realize it's time to start taking their project dreams off the shelf and get working on them. The majority of my coaching...

Why spend time on things like values, vision, and mission for your work? Because those are the subconscious things people are attracted to. Client avatar worksheet is impossible to finish, or it just doesn't work? Maybe you need to spend some time clarifying your values video and mission. Maybe you could work more on articulating your specialty. Then the people who need it will be easier to find....

In a morning conversation with an online course client, the topic turned to creating a lead magnet to promote her course and to bring people to the enrollment page. She's done PDF ebooks for email opt-ins before, but she doesn't have the time to do anything that elaborate for the course. I showed her a simple checklist I use for my Quiz Quick Start course and how I put it right on my course enroll...

After finishing the three courses I released over the summer, I took Robbie Samuels' advice and took a month off from production. (He talks about this in his wonderful book, Small List, Big Results that you can get here with my Associate's link: https://amzn.to/3xyGkKg ) I've read the book a few times and this was one of the practices he suggested that stood out.  The time off isn't necessari...

If you're an entrepreneur and you've tried other people's blueprints, you may have found that their steps didn't work for your business. In this topical deep-dive, Erica Holthausen of Catchline Communications and Audrey Holst of Fortitude and Flow return to talk through some of the reasons for this phenomenon. In this episode, we talk about: ** Finding Your Business Fingerprint Instead of Buying B...

If you were watching out for the new episode with Erica and Audrey, it will be coming out tomorrow. Today was a mess. Monica needed a ride to a conference in Denver and I thought it was only going to take a couple of hours to get there. It ended up taking almost five hours today. One of the challenges I have in common with most of the solopreneurs and freelancers I work with is the possibility of...

I'm not sure why my comment was the one you felt it necessary to reply with a very vocal and highly capitalized opinion, but goodness! I didn't mean to ruin your day by telling someone I liked what they said and how they said it. Dear friends, we've got to get some perspective here. Our preferences and opinions are not universally true and applicable to all other human beings. Relax! I share my op...

I've built several email lists over the years and for various enterprises. My music email list grew to about 3500 people over 20 years. This isn't huge compared to the efforts of others, but it was grown a couple of enrollments at a time when I was playing for small audiences consisting of mostly the same people. My current email list is less than 500 people, and I write only a few emails yearly....

A recurring FAQ in my world is, "Where can I meet the people I need to know? They aren't at the networking meetings I go to." I remember when I was in corporate sales and consulting, the country club was the place to meet new contacts if you could afford it. I couldn't. There were gym memberships, social clubs, service organizations, and other places, too, but many of those placed limitations on u...

Thanks to Jess Kotzer and the Self Pub Hub group for giving me a place to share some POV tonight. If you're an author considering self-publishing, you should check them out here: https://www.selfpubhub.org/ A couple of insights came to me tonight as we discussed authors' marketing ideas. One was a reminder of something Tom Espinola, the producer of my CD Falling All The Way, told me. He suggested...

This weekend didn't go according to plan, at least my plan.

For as long as I can remember, I've heard conversations and opinions centered on a deep concern for the future of the arts. As an artist myself, I've participated in many of these conversations, and there have been times I've been deeply worried about where fine arts, in particular, are headed. But I've recently started to see that worry as misplaced. There are a couple of indicators that fine art...

I took the Myers-Briggs (MBTI) forty years ago to find that I'm an INFP. Think what you want about that, but I'll just use it as a reference to say that my personality tends to land on the side of high sensitivity, empathy, and intuition. Truth be told, I find most marketing and sales techniques difficult to carry out and sustain for any length of time without ending up feeling completely exhauste...