Franklin Taggart's Blog, Podcasts, and Videos

A Frequently Asked Question for 2023 from people I talk to is - Is it too late to start a creative freelance career? With all the talk about AI, ChatGPT, Midjourney, and whatever the AI flavor of the day is, these friends are rightfully wondering if they've waited too long to get into the game. I don't think it's too late at all. In fact, people getting started now may have an advantage over people who've been at it a while. Enter Sheena McInnes. Sheena is a copywriter who just got into the business in the latter part of 2022. Her first career path was literally in the wilderness as a conservationist and scientist. Ten years into the unpredictable weather patterns, large mosquitos, and non-human trail company (read large wild animals), Sheena found a coach and started looking for the next phase of her work life. She discovered freelance copywriting. Departing from the usual format of teasing valuable goodness from seasoned veteran creators and entrepreneurs, in this epi...

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 

  We've been watching Stanley Tucci - Searching for Italy on CNN and loving it. My Italian Sweetie is inspired by the show and we're both blown away by the quality and variety of the food he's finding. He's visiting 20 regions and revealing the unique menu in each. I'm amazed to see the difference, even in regions that are connected to each other geographically. Every one of them has a different food repertoire based on several factors - available ingredients, customs, cultural identity, culinary traditions, and even political influence all play a part in the food a locale is known for. If you've ever tried to cook from someone else's recipe, you may have found that you followed every instruction exactly and still found that you weren't pleased with the result. So the next time you cooked it, you made changes according to your own preferences and ideas. And this time it came out much more to your liking. And at some point, you started from scratch and ma...

When people are considering starting a creative career, one of the first questions they ask is "When should I start charging money for my work?" This is a great question. And I think it's worth understanding that there are some people who are so excited about their newfound talent that they rush into trying to make a living from their creative work before they're ready. In this Coffee Break, I share a perception I've had with people I work with and people I've observed over the years to help make sense of that question. The first thing I want you to understand is that getting paid for what you do is only a small fraction of the value of your creativity. And for many people, it doesn't mean anything compared to the intrinsic value of the creative experience. If people are asking you for your work, it's safe to say you can start charging money for it. How much? That's a whole other topic, likely a series of videos, but it's OK to charge something...