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I was a tobacco user and addicted to nicotine from when I was a teenager until September 3, 2006. As a kid growing up Mormon, I had been afraid of and entranced by smoking. The church drew a hard line against most mind-altering substances, and tobacco was at the top of the forbidden list. That just added to the allure. There was an older kid in the neighborhood who was kind of a loner we'd see walking to and from school with a spiraling cloud puffing out of his mouth. He could have been a great person, but we saw him only as a smoker, and our seven-year-old minds equated smoking with being bad. We were scared of him. My cousin was born with an endless wild streak and easily filled the role in my parent's mind of a bad influence. When we were about ten, we went to the gas station next to our aunt's hotel and bought a pack of Kools. He was a ranch kid who had been dipping snuff for several years. We all wanted to try smoking, and he always seemed to find a way for us to disco...

  Do you ever find yourself feeling jealous or envious of another person's success? They may even be someone you like and admire, but on occasion, you start to compare yourself to them and wonder why you're not having the same result as they are - even when you've been trying similar tactics. This topic has come up in three recent conversations with close friends and colleagues. I was happy to find that I wasn't alone in my experience of professional jealousy, but I also felt like I needed to poke around in the weeds around the issue to see what I could see.  Speaking only from my experience, jealousy is a painful emotion and is often the first symptom I notice when I feel stuck in some part of my life - especially my business. Jealousy is one of the emotions that I call a binder - I freeze in my tracks, and my ability to create, connect, and support is difficult, if not impossible, to access. Jealousy is an emotion that sometimes masks itself in my awareness. It's ...

One of my frequent frustrations as a performing musician was the interference of self-consciousness while playing. Specifically, what I'll describe happened most often when I played a guitar instrumental at the edge of my talent. My practices would be exceptional experiences of focus and flow. In my studio, the music came through me easily, and my awareness of time and space and my place in them would fade into the background, and there would only be music playing. It was magical. The experience in front of an audience was completely different. As soon as there were other people in the room watching me play, my tension would rise, and that part of me that cared about what other people think came barreling into my awareness. Self-consciousness would involve itself in my performance, and the sense of focus and flow I had in the practice room evaporated on the stage. A mistake would happen, and the tension would be even greater, and another mistake would follow, and many times, I woul...

I've been experimenting with several of the latest AI platforms. Canva's most recent AI updates have introduced some fun possibilities.  I make a lot of checklists, worksheets, workbooks, and interactive PDFs that can be tedious and time-consuming to design and make. I've been learning how to use Canva's AI to generate the basic PDFs for me and then I take them to Adobe Acrobat Pro to make them fillable and saveable. I'm hoping Canva will be able to add fillable PDFs to it's output options soon. In the latest New Tricks video, I share how I made a quick social media survey form in less than 15 minutes. Watch it here:

Before you read the article, please take a minute and use this handy affiliate link to open the information and enrollment page for the Freelance After 50 Summit . If you are at any stage of freelancing, from just thinking about it to having years of freelance experience, there will be something of exceptional value for you to find in this event. At a minimum, you'll be introduced to the resources and community offered by the fantastic folks at Freelance University. You can attend for free, or you can spring for the bonus features included in the advanced tier. You'll be able to determine your schedule ahead of time and choose those presentations that are of particular interest to you.  There is so much change going on in the job market right now. Layoffs in many industries and in government are pushing people into the employment scramble, and many are wondering if they'll ever be able to find secure employment again. While hiring discrimination based on age is illegal, HR ...

  I've known that I am an introvert from the first time I heard the meaning of the word.  Not to be confused with shyness or timidity, my introversion is more about conserving energy and being able to prevent myself from going into a state of sensory overload or overwhelm. Being in noisy and crowded spaces has always been a challenge. I talked about this quite a bit in my podcast, Your Own Best Company.  Upon hearing these things, some friends of mine suggested that  I might qualify as a Highly Sensitive Person in addition to being an introvert. They referred me to the book  The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You  by Elaine N. Aron. I had heard the term HSP in self-help circles but had never looked into it in  any detail.  There were definitely some parallels in the book that related to my experience: Gravitating to uncrowded spaces where solitude could be found. Finding ways to regulate the stimulation in my envi...

  It's been easy to talk about the worst parts of the tech explosion, artificial intelligence, and social media experience. It's noisy, confusing, often unpleasant, and complicated. It's not easy to navigate. Algorithms think they know what you want, but they keep showing you stuff that you wouldn't choose for yourself if you had time to decide anything.  I was on YouTube this morning, looking at the hundreds of videos that were being promoted on my feed. The thumbnails all look the same so as to seem generic. While the once popular promise that the internet and social media were going to offer endless possibilities to be uniquely yourself, the movement seems to be more toward homogeneity. I don't have a lot of time to watch, but I need a better way to choose than endless scrolling and filtering. I've grown more weary of the online world, and I often wonder how useful it really is. There was a gracefulness about the card catalog at the library that made the expe...

  My experience on YouTube has been a cool adventure for the most part. In the midst of spam comments, thumbnails and titles that are intended to coerce, and the noise you sift through to find what you want, miracles can happen. One of those miracles took the form of meeting Matthew Gray of the 50 Tastes of Gray Podcast.  A few years ago, I made a ten-minute video with no advance planning or intention that has become the most popular video on my page. It's about making a graphic overlay for Zoom interviews. That accidental success was the first point of contact.  In the past couple of years, Matthew has reached out to touch base and see how I've been doing. Most YouTube-inspired exchanges are not this thoughtful, but in one of his latest check-ins, he asked if I'd join him on his podcast. I'd made an assumption that the podcast was mostly about food, but that was before I'd properly listened to a few episodes. Matthew just loves good conversations, and he's a ma...

The episode can be heard below. You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to the shows you love. Here are some important links related to the program: The Mindful Evolution Podcast site.  Leah's YouTube Channel. Leah's website. Leah on Instagram . One of the highlights of attending last Summer's Podcast Movement conference in Denver was the random meeting in a discussion on blogging with a new podcaster named Leah Drew. I don't remember the specific content of our conversation, but I remember the instant feeling of connection with a kindred spirit. In the few times we've spoken since the conference, that sense has only been reinforced. Leah was preparing to launch her podcast called The Mindful Evolution Podcast to share her own insights and those of her guests relating to soulful, holistic healing. In passing, we talked about how my own path in the past few years had been about coming face to face with my own shadow self, that side of me that I have want...

Since the public launch of ChatGPT 3 in late 2022, the rapid introduction of artificial intelligence into the mainstream of every aspect of human living has been a central topic of conversation and concern. AI tools have spread across the creative industries like wildfire and have been inserted into every level of task from ideation to packaging. Where we had hoped the robots would take over the mundane tasks of life, instead, we've seen the technology pointed at the big red target on the face of all our creative activities.  While the tech gods have tried to assure us that human labor won't be replaced overnight, we've still seen early signs that the trend will be toward computers and machines doing the work humans once did. This isn't an abnormal pattern. From the earliest development of tools, the whole point has been for human labor to become easier and ultimately redundant. But can we be prepared for how the race will be affected as tech takes over increasingly hig...

  When I retired from performing in 2022, I wasn't sure how music was going to show up in my life. For a couple of months, I didn't pick up the guitar - the longest stretch without playing since I got my first guitar. Even during the years I struggled with tendinitis, I would still pick it up and play until the pain stopped me. In the months since I stopped performing, I've regained my love and appreciation just for the time I get to pick up my guitar and play. That is the essence of this interview. My long-time friend Margo set up this interview with Jake Douglass. His mission is exciting. It's driven by the desire to turn people on to the joy of playing music for music's sake. We cover every aspect of the role of music in my life, from my first piano lessons to my last gig and beyond. It was fun and at moments, touching, to remember specific moments when a random encounter started a new trajectory of my journey. Please listen, and if you enjoy what you hear, give ...

I've been a self-help, self-improvement, self-development junkie for decades.  I've spent tens of thousands of dollars on books, programs, curricula, behavior modification, weight loss, smoking cessation, discipleship training, and seeking my vision in the wilderness. If I had invested that money in making more money, I would be comfortably retired by now. For all the time, money, and effort, I would have hoped for a better result.  As Jamie Smart says, shouldn't light be streaming from all my orifices by now? But I'm not much, if any, different than I was before all of this. I struggle with the same things, think the same negative thoughts, worry about everything, and don't see the improvement I've been striving for. I use the techniques - mindset shifts, meditation, yoga, nature walks, writing my desires and goals clearly, clarifying my intentions, and doing all the prescribed work - but I'm no better off as a person or in life. Don't get me wrong, I h...

  In the category of life imitating art, I am excited to return to production of the Virtual Coffee Break.  You may have seen my last post about the final episode of Your Own Best Company, but if you haven't, be sure to check it out. 2023 has been filled with a lot of reflection and evaluating activities. The pandemic years were good for business, but I ultimately found that any expectations formed during that time were largely abnormal. I've noticed that much of my work has shifted back to the levels and activities I had before the pandemic. I've also had more than a few people contact me for coaching as they navigate new twists and turns in their career and business paths. Most recently, three find themselves having a Rip Van Winkle moment - waking up from a long nap to find that everything is different for them than before. One has been taking care of a dying parent, another has been sending the last of her children to college, and another has rekindled a music career af...

  The idea for the Books Applied Podcast is one of the most fun and creative I've run across. Iggy Perillo of WSL Leadership is the creator and host. The premise of Books Applied is that Iggy invites people to read a book related to their professional expertise and then discuss it on the podcast. So much fun! The book I was invited to discuss was Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, by Elizabeth Gilbert , the celebrated author of Eat, Pray, Love.  I had already downloaded the book on my Kindle probably two years earlier, but Iggy's invitation was the impetus to crack the cover and read it. I won't give away the whole conversation, but I'll spill the beans on a couple of things to listen for. Iggy and I both had lukewarm responses to Eat, Pray, Love. We each had our own reasons, but it didn't make our recommended reading lists. In Big Magic, I found much to agree with and felt very affirmed by many things she wrote. I did feel like there was a push to make the cre...

  Your Own Best Company podcast listeners heard me interview Michelle Nedelec back in May about the rebellious nature of entrepreneurship. Click here if you missed it! Since that episode, I've had more opportunities to talk with Michelle on two of her podcasts, The Business Ownership Podcast and The Little Blue Pill for Business Podcast. Michelle is a brilliant entrepreneur, a prolific podcaster(hosting and producing five shows at last count), a top-notch interviewer, and wickedly funny for the win.  I'll feature my interviews below, but in case you want to get in touch with her, Michelle can be found at https://michellenedelec.com , and on LinkedIn at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellenedelec/ . Our first conversation was for The Business Ownership Podcast on the topic of Creating a Creative Business We had a lot of fun talking about how creative people with little or no business experience can learn the ropes quickly and develop the business that allows them to cont...

▼▼▼ Watch and Listen Below ▼▼▼ I had a conversation earlier today with a friend who was interested in listening to podcasts, but he'd found it difficult to find and access podcasts he might like to hear. If you are a new podcast listener or would like to start finding and enjoying podcasts, this quick tutorial will help you get started. Here's a link to the free mini course with access to Franklin's list of recommended podcasts and more! Finding a Phone or Device App The first step is to find an app you can use to listen on your smart devices. You already have at least one app on your phone or tablet that has podcast listening built in. I suggest you find an app that allows you to search, subscribe, stream, download, share, and review podcasts. If you have an Apple device like an iPhone or iPad, Apple Podcasts should be installed on your phone or easily accessed in the app store. Apple Podcasts is easy to learn how to use, although I have heard complaints about its search f...