Depression, anxiety, and other mental health concerns are common experiences for many solopreneurs, freelancers, and self-employed. Kim Pratt from the Alliance for Suicide Prevention of Larimer County is the guest on this episode of Your Own Best Company.  Kim shares early warning signs, symptoms, and support resources if you are concerned about your mental health. Her go-to suggestion is to program the number 988 into your phone. This national crisis hotline offers support and services 24/7/365 in the US and is free to call. She also shares insight into how to find the right kind of help and offers both local and national resources for help. In the meantime, stay connected to your family, friends, and peers, and be honest with yourself and with them if you're having a difficult time. More information: ⁠ https://www.suicideprevent.org⁠ #mentalhealth #suicideprevention #depression 

Thanks to Marvin Bee for the invitation to share my story of turning a question and answer session with ChatGPT into a published Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) book on Uncle Marv's I.T. Business Podcast! This was a fun conversation, and I'll be looking forward to welcoming Marvin to Your Own Best Company sometime soon.  We talked about concerns and opportunities that tools like ChatGPT and other technology are presenting as they become more widely used. I recall some of my music career experiences in which tech advances changed everything about the music business in a relatively short period of time. And we talked about my initial surprise at the thorough way my questions were responded to.  You can hear the whole episode here:  Marvin has some other great episodes to check out here, especially if you are interested in more tech-centered conversations. And he's got an Amazon link to the book: https://itbusinesspodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/495-a-conversation-with-chatgpt

  Michelle Nedelec ▼▼▼ Watch and Listen Below!! ▼▼▼ Being her own boss seemed like the best option after being fired from a job working for someone else - her sister. 28 career pivots later, Michelle Nedelec has gathered a toolbelt full of business experiences that she draws from as she helps other business owners and executives navigate their marketing challenges. She's also a sought-after speaker, the host of five podcasts at last count, and a wickedly wise business strategist. In this episode of Your Own Best Company, Michelle opens up about: ** Being led by curiosity. ** Finding opportunities in surprising places. ** Insanity as a marketing strategy. ** The important distinction between employee and owner. ** How to become a certified forklift operator wearing six-inch stilettos. Michelle's Social Media  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/michelle.nedelec1   Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/businessownershipsecretstoscaling   Linkedln https://www.linkedin.com/i

  Virtual Backgrounds in Zoom aren't a new feature, but my friend Bonnie asked how I make mine so I made a tutorial for her. I'm sharing it with whoever else would like to learn. I'm a Canva Pro affiliate, so if you haven't tried pro yet, use my link to start your trial: https://bit.ly/Franklin-Canva (Link is case sensitive) Thanks for watching, sharing, and subscribing! #Zoom #Canva #tutorial 

  Persuasive communication is a cornerstone skill for every business owner, and many have never learned effective ways to consistently present influential messages. They may have a compelling offer but haven't established a strong enough connection to support it. Or the reader may be skeptical of claims after trying solutions that haven't worked, but the message doesn't acknowledge their experience. Billy Broas has gathered messaging wisdom from some of the greatest marketing communicators in the world and consolidated that knowledge into an extraordinarily useful framework called The Five Lightbulbs. In this episode of Your Own Best Company, Billy walks us through the framework influenced by copywriting masters like Eugene Schwartz, John Carlton, Gary, Bond, and Kevin Halbert, and David Garfinkel. Using The Five Lightbulbs framework will enable you to tailor your message to your customer's specific circumstances, and it will give you all the components of a complete pe

  Lou Bortone on ▼▼▼ Watch and Listen Below! ▼▼▼ If you want to increase online visibility for your business, the universal advice is that you need to post videos. Everywhere, all the time, videos. Algorithms love videos, Kids love videos. Grandmas love videos. Videos, videos, videos! I was a slow starter when it came to posting videos for my music and my businesses. I've had a YouTube channel for a long time and it sat for years while I worked up the nerve and figured out how to use my camera. A few years ago, I heard about a class called 31 Flavors of video. In that class, I learned about 31 different kinds of online video I could make, I joined a Facebook group where I got daily feedback. And I gained some amazing tools and resources that helped me make good decisions about equipment, production, scripting, and more. In this episode, I'll introduce you to Lou Bortone, the creator of the 31 Flavors of Video, as well as programs like Fast Forward video mastermind, and the new

  Some of you long-time friends will remember Curt Bear's visit with me on The Reset Podcast several years ago. Curt is a colleague at Larimer SBDC and is the Founder of an amazing business resource called the LoCo Think Tank. He's also become a prolific podcaster, featuring some of Northern Colorado's movers, shakers, and community linchpins. It's an honor to be included in the lineup for The LoCo Experience show. One of the things I like about Curt's podcast is that it's a long format. He doesn't put a time limit on the conversation and he likes to get stories that no other podcasts capture. This is one of the most in-depth interviews I've ever had and I enjoyed the conversation that Curt teased out with his discussion style. You can listen to the interview below, and find out more about Curt, LoCo Think Tank, and the podcast here: https://locothinktank.com/the-loco-experience-podcast/

Freelance writer Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer started her Heiditown blog over 15 years ago to share her experiences, interests, and point of view. It grew from a personal blog into a valued resource for tourists in Colorado looking for a more personal experience than all those on the beaten path. Heidi expanded her services in the direction of destination marketing and festival promotion, building her reputation as she and her husband and various pets traveled from small town to small town, one road trip at a time. The Heditown brand continues to expand as Heidi now offers consulting services to small towns leaders, helping them to find and articulate their uniqueness and finding aspects that deserve celebration and build local pride and optimism. Find Heidi at https://heiditown.com . Also mentioned in this episode: Tacos and Pho - https://tacosandpho.com And Ryan Schlaefer Fine Furniture - http://www.rtsfurnituredesign.com/ Thanks for listening, subscribing, reviewing, and sharing Your Own Be

  Unless you took classes in advertising or rhetoric or were a high school debate team member, chances are you didn't have any formal education in persuasive communication. But as a business owner, most of the communication you do is persuasive in nature. Marketing, sales, recruiting, motivating, and encouraging are part and parcel of your daily interaction. Some of us think that persuasive communication is coercive or manipulative, and in some cases, it is. Still, we all have learned ways of influencing others that are honest, transparent, and helpful.  In this live, in-person class, we'll learn how to increase our marketing messages' persuasiveness. We'll cover important topics like: Creating sensory experiences with words. Building your power-verb vocabulary. Appealing to reason, emotion, and desire. Suggestion and imagination. Simple message frameworks. The class will be happening Wednesday, April 12, 2023, from 1-4 PM  at Larimer SBDC. The cost is $25, which is a s

  ▼▼▼ Watch and Listen Below! ▼▼▼ I love what Brooke Monaghan has to say about entrepreneurship: "...this is what I always have to break down for people. Listen to anyone who has anything to say about entrepreneurship, and what they're going to tell you is, if you can figure out a way that people in your community are not being served, innovate some solution for them. That is the foundation for creating a business. So when I talk to people who are part of a community, and really care about some weird little niche thing, and they see all of the problems - here are all the ways that we are not being served - here are all the ways that we are being overlooked. Here are all the ways that we're being left behind. And they have some idea about how they can make that better. That is literally the thing that everyone like me who really wanted to be in business needed, but didn't feel like they had a thing. That's the thing that we have all been searching for. Please, pleas

Thanks to my dear friend, Joanie Connell, Ph.D., for the invitation to a conversation about the AI tidal wave, the challenges and opportunities it brings, and the book I made. While the title might suggest an adversarial relationship, I hold out hope that our capabilities are about to expand in positive ways we've never dreamed of.  Reinventing Nerds has been a favorite podcast of mine since its launch, and I encourage you to listen, subscribe, share, and review! https://reinventingnerds.blubrry.net/2023/03/24/franklin-taggart-humans-vs-ai/ #ai #podcast #kdp #author #newbook #chatgpt  The book is HERE  

  As 2023 started, I invited Audrey Holst of Fortitude and Flow and Erica Holthausen from Catchline Communications to come back for a conversation on the topic of why we do the work we do and all the smaller questions attached to that. The chats we three enjoy are some of my favorites, and this one raised the bar even higher. We had much to talk about, including: ** What becomes possible when basics are taken care of? ** Redefining the rich life. ** What the gym can teach us about business. ** Stepping back from the production/consumption loop. ** Variable-Speed working Find Audrey at ⁠ https://fortitudeandflow.com⁠ Find Erica at ⁠ https://catchlinecommunications.com⁠ All three of us are active on LinkedIn, too. As always, thanks for listening, subscribing, reviewing, and sharing Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart! #podcast #career #solopreneur 

  I was recently introduced to Brooke Monaghan by our mutual friend Audrey Holst. Upon meeting, I found Brooke to be a kindred soul in her outlook and unwillingness to settle for the status quo. We both decided we needed to interview each other, and I'm so glad we did. (Her interview on Your Own Best Company will be released next week!) In this episode of Brooke's podcast, Transcend Your Dichotomy, we had time to go deep with several topics. First, thanks to Brooke for giving me the space and time to share my story. Some of the other twists and turns we took: ** My skepticism and suspicion around the term 'thought leader" and those who would be quick to identify themselves as such. ** What it means to be a coach and to discover that calling in different ways. ** The power of working alone, not in isolation, but in solitude. ** My rapidly intensifying interest in AI and the impact it may likely have on the ways we work and live. You can listen to the episode on the plat

  ** Watch, Listen, and Read a Sample Below ** The first online networking mixer I ever attended in 2021 had over 100 attendees. The hosts had to pay for the extra space and had inadvertently disabled the breakout room assignments when they did. As the event ground to a halt, the host apologized and then asked, "Is Robbie Samuels here?" From one of the many screens and rows of faces came the reply, "Yes, I'm here." With a couple of his brief suggestions, the problem was solved and the rest of the meeting went off without a hitch.  I spend around 90 percent of my working time in online meetings. From podcast interviews to coaching clients to group calls to summits and webinars -  not a day goes by when I wouldn't love to have Robbie's expertise in the room. Robbie's new book, B reak Out of Boredom: Low-Tech Solutions for Highly Engaging Zoom Events makes his expertise available to all of us, and it will raise the bar in every kind of online gathering

  I've wanted to write and publish a book since I was a kid. I'm old now, so that's a long time to have a dream. I've started books many times in my life, but the determination and persistence to finish them have eluded me. I've had a lot of questions and concerns about AI. I know - I'm not alone. I've heard so many rumors, speculations, panic, and misinformation about all of it these past few months. Will it take jobs? Yes, it will. When? I don't know for sure. Some sooner, some later. Will our social structures and economy be able to weather the changes? Most likely not, at least from what we know now. But we'll know more later. That's how life works. Anyhow. I collected all my questions, thinking I'd write yet another book. Then I got discouraged at the amount of research I'd need to do to adequately answer the questions and decided to shelve the idea until three Sundays ago. I had the thought that I should put my questions into ChatGP

  #Solopreneurs and #freelancers business success depend on their staying healthy. And we don't tend to plan for undesirable circumstances. We almost always plan according to ideal situations. And then the #calamities of life arrive. Then what? Laura Livingston is back to talk about her experience of business being interrupted by some unexpected physical challenges. Franklin has a few stories of his own in this area.  Here are some of the twists and turns in this conversation: ** Building and leveraging a team. ** Prioritizing self-care. ** Honoring the body and all your passions. ** Contingencies, priorities, and commitments. ** Making pivotal decisions and intentions. Laura can be reached at https://lauralivingston.co Franklin at https://franklintaggart.com Thanks for listening, subscribing, reviewing, and sharing Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart! 

  If you've been taking care of others for a long time, it may take a while to reawaken and recognize your own desires. Pay attention to your body. Give yourself time to relearn how to use your want muscles. They haven't had a workout in a while. My friend was taking care of other people from the time she woke until the time she fell into bed. When I asked her if she knew what she wanted, she said that was the wrong question to ask. She was struggling with how to want. Developing new habits takes time, which goes for developing or relearning how we once did things, like acting on our desires instead of reacting to others. Start, and pay attention to physical cues. Your body will lead you, but you have been out of the listening practice. #emptynester #caregiver #selfhelp 

One of my favorite parts of being a podcast guest is experiencing how different hosts draw out different aspects of my story. I've been a fan of Michael Roderick's Access to Anyone podcast for over a year and was delighted to have him as a guest on Your Own Best Company. When Michael offered the chance for me to be his guest, I didn't hesitate. Michael is a generous host and thoughtful interviewer who gave me great questions to reflect on and plenty of room to respond. Thanks for taking some time to listen to our conversation. If you enjoy the show, subscribe to it on your favorite podcast host, and be sure to leave a review. That helps more people find the show. https://accesstoanyonepodcast.com/creating-experiences-with-franklin-taggart/ You can also listen right here: 

  Founded in FoCo is a three-day event for businesses of all sizes, from solopreneurs to large companies to non-profit organizations. It's a collaborative community effort that offers peer-to-peer education, inspiring speakers, networking, and more. This year's event is coming up at the Front Range Community College Harmony Campus in Fort Collins on March 1-3, 2023. If you're a business owner located within 100 miles or so of Larimer County, you're welcome to attend this free event. These kinds of events are familiar territory for today's guest on Your Own Best Company. Nick Armstrong of WTF Marketing is the lead organizer of Founded in FoCo, and he's no stranger to locally focused collaborative events. As one of the founders of Fort Collins Comic Con, Nick has a history of initiating exciting and engaging community events that all serve a higher purpose of bringing people together, having fun, and supporting the causes and organizations that matter. In this epi

When did you learn important career-building skills like networking, finding mentors, interviewing, and finding great work opportunities? Most people didn't learn these skills in college or high school. We learned them when we had to - when we were searching for our first jobs or starting our first businesses. MIT alum and teacher Mark A. Herschberg saw this gap and decided to create a solution. His career success accelerator class teaches students the basic skills they need to navigate and prepare for building the careers they want. Recognizing a similar gap in the thousands of available career-oriented books, Herschberg wrote The Career Toolkit: Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You. (Available here: https://amzn.to/3wOe45B Associates Link) He is also the creator of the Brain Bump app - a context-sensitive content collection and dissemination tool that helps people organize the content they want at their fingertips and easily access and share it. From tracking crim

For many people ages 50 and up, we're adapting to a part of our life in which our normal roles are going through significant changes. Some of us are shifting into caretaking for aging parents while shifting away from the caretaking role we've had with our kids. The norms we've been used to, sometimes for decades, are undergoing great changes. Some of my friends and clients in this age group talk about the difficulty they have in regaining their own sense of priority and desire apart from those they've adopted as spouses, parents, co-parents, and partners. Some are challenged by setting aside the things they want to do in order to take on more responsibility for family members.  My own newfound time freedom since my son got his driver's license has been surprisingly daunting because I'm no longer spending 15-20 hours a week driving him places. And the default reaction of doing more work hasn't actually happened. I have a friend who talks about her difficulty

In this video about pricing your freelance services, I challenge some of the things people think they're paying for. When it's all said and done, you're not being paid for your time, talent, knowledge, expertise, or qualifications. In truth, you're not being paid for your product or service. You're only being paid for one thing. Watch the video to find out what that one thing is, and join the conversation about how to price your work fairly so that you and your customer both feel great about the transaction. pricing #value #entrepreneurship 

Thanks for the supportive notes and calls after my video the other day talking about seasonal depression. I was telling a friend that one of the things that is hard when I'm feeling that way is that other people see it as a problem to solve or something broken to fix. That usually just makes it feel worse. Those of you who were able to just let me have the time I needed and my own process to work it out are appreciated beyond words. I've mentioned these people before:  Sydney Banks - The blue-collar Scotsman who spontaneously awakened and realized the relationship between thought and emotional experience. Lester Levenson - The skeptical physicist who dove into relentless self-inquiry after his second heart attack at age 42, discovering a way to release emotional resistance and experience incredible freedom. Esther Hicks - A spiritual seeker and experimenter who became an open channel for another realm as she learned to meditate. I've learned something from each of them abou

2022 ended for me with a round of depression. This isn't a new thing and is likely seasonal, but it is still depression, and it's not exactly comfortable. After finishing the year and achieving what I'd set out for, I was at a loss for what I wanted to do next. When desires seemed out of reach, I knew it was a visit from my well-known companion. Recognizing the signs, the first thing I did was allow myself a week off. I did a bare minimum of work-related activities and binge-watched a few shows on Netflix. One of the things I appreciate about great stories is that they give me a way to reconnect with humanity without having to have other humans in the room. I also read some good fiction and that accomplished much the same thing. I didn't resist the urge to sleep, and I added a little bit more physical activity into my routine via yoga and some extra walking time with the dog. Most importantly, I didn't try to force myself to feel anything different. I meditated and

When his research led to finding a link between multi-passionate people and neurodiversity, Perry Knoppert ultimately created a movement. The Octopus Movement is, in Perry's words, a gathering of curious misfits. Now numbering over 2500 members from 60 countries, The Octopus Movement is a celebration of people who don't fit neatly into well-defined social structures and who share the common characteristic of nonlinear thinking. In this episode of Your Own Best Company, Perry tells his story of losing everything as his first step to making anything possible. Our topics of conversation include: ** Finding a link between having multiple passions and neurodiversity. ** Making a place for nonlinear thinking in linear organizations. ** The common loneliness experienced by neurodivergent people. ** The challenges of nonlinear thinkers in employment and relationships. You can join the Octopus Movement and learn more about Perry at https://theoctopusmovement.org. Thanks for listening, s