Franklin Taggart's Blog, Podcasts, and Videos

Humans are wired to connect through telling stories. It's been our primary way of communing with each other for thousands of years. Storytelling is so built into the design that we often don't recognize when it's happening or when we're doing it.  Lori Robertson, the SpeakHer Coach, joins Your Own Best Company today to talk about the power of story as a way to encourage, uplift, inspire, and transform. In her work with professional women, organizational leaders, and emerging influencers, Lori teaches how to bring a crystal clear message to people in unforgettable and valuable ways. In this interview, Lori shares her story of being put in front of large crowds early in her speaking experience, how she rose to leadership in an organization that sponsored over 30 large-audience live events every year, and how she now works with her clients to own their message and share their gift-laden stories on stages of all sizes. You may find Lori at ⁠ https://SpeakHerCoach.com⁠ and o...

  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...

In the Clients Everywhere! Workshop today we talked about barriers that we unconsciously put between ourselves and people who could become customers. For me, the two that are most familiar are timidity and self-consciousness. Timidity is something I've defaulted to for as long as I remember. I usually wait for others to speak before I feel comfortable saying anything and often if they don't start the conversation, there won't be a conversation. When I started to intentionally initiate conversations a lot of things changed for the better. Being invited to talk to someone often has a meaning attached to me that they accept me and I belong - two human needs that have been central to my MO. What I found in starting to initiate conversations was that I no longer felt the need for acceptance and belonging as acutely as I had before. Acceptance and belonging can be had by initiating conversations. Strange, but true. The second barrier - self-consciousness - showed up as me being i...

4 in 10 adults say that public speaking is their greatest terror. And the Association of American Colleges and Universities listed public speaking as the most in-demand job skill that employers need but can’t find in job candidates. Those of us who are self-employed aren’t exactly off the hook either. Strong speaking skills are a necessity for many of us as we work to represent our businesses and attract new clients to our services. Communication skills are fundamental to our success and those who invest in building theirs are ahead of the game. Meridith Grundei helps good speakers become great speakers. As a speaking coach and trainer she’s worked with every kind of individual and organization; from the woman executive who needs to deliver a high-impact report to her board of directors, to small nonprofit agencies, to teams within the most well-known Fortune 500 companies. Meridith brings her decades of storytelling, stage performance, professional directing, and education to help vis...