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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:

  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 ...

 ▼ Watch and Listen Below! ▼ For coaches, consultants, and other experts, reaching new audiences with your messages, experience, and offers is one of the biggest business challenges. You'll be given a litany of options that will include blogging, YouTube, social media strategy, public speaking, podcasting, and whatever marketing soup of the day everyone is raving about. Erica Holthausen has a better idea. Share your expertise with the masses by publishing articles in major publications like Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur, and professional journals. The digital realm has opened many doors for experts to share their writing that weren't available even a few years ago. Erica's coaching programs help professionals plan, write, pitch, and place their articles in publications that will expose thousands of new people to their work. From here, you'll want to join her for her free Q and A session, Pitched to Published here: https://www.catchlinecommunications.com/p2p.html While you...

Noticing how the state of mind I'm in when I'm creating is a consciousness that allows me to see possibilities and opportunities that weren't able to be on my screen even a few weeks ago. It's more than just a flow state. It's a level of inspiration that keeps revealing more and more potential. Seeing so many ways I can use the quiz and course software and design tools I've been learning, and how many opportunities to help others with those skills and that knowledge there are. If you're feeling stuck in any area, find a creative activity to immerse yourself in for a little while and see if that activity allows your mind to shift into a greater expansion of awareness, allowing you to see the possibilities you're waiting and looking for. #onlinecourse #quizzes #teachable 

▼Watch and Listen Below!▼ As an Executive Assistant and a Virtual Assistant, Linda Eskridge realized that much of her responsibility was finding unique and meaningful gifts for the people she worked for to give to prospects, customers, and clients. They wanted more of a personal touch than sending the common branded notepads, pens, and t-shirts. Through these experiences, she had the idea that offering her services as a gifting consultant might actually have a place and Couture Business Gifting was born. Linda is hired by busy entrepreneurs, executives, and yes, their assistants in the process of research, acquisition, packaging, and delivery of gifts that build strong relationships between her clients and their customers. In this episode, she lets us know: ** The importance of building good relationships with customers. ** Research to find the interests and passions of the gift recipients. ** Creating a progressive gifting strategy. ** Remembering to include the gatekeepers. And more....

  ▼Watch and Listen Below!▼ Entrepreneurs often compartmentalize the different parts of their lives in ways that become unmanageable and that lead to higher stress, burnout, and in the extreme, health crises. Kc Rossi found herself in the midst of such an experience after building a highly successful company but with the high cost of "being on all the time." This unsustainable lifestyle led to an acute health condition that required an immediate and thorough change. As Kc found her way into healthier ways of living and doing business, she also found that there were opportunities being presented to her to work with other successful women facing similar challenges to those she had faced. She is now a highly successful business and leadership coach with a mission to unite and amplify empowered women. In addition to coaching, Kc is also the host of Women Developing Brilliance® - The Spirit of Business With Kc Rossi podcast, and she's a monthly executive contributor to Brainz ...

▼▼▼ Watch and Listen Below!▼▼▼ Some of the best creativity-themed moments from season one of Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart. Cheryl Benedict https://thewisdomoftransition.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/7typuPJFogI Jillian Lee Antinora https://jillianleeantinoramusic.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/k7o7-xLvfU4 Cynthia Trevino https://shemarketsmentor.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/g3Yg2JcKh9M Breanna Gunn https://breannagunn.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/1piz0i-zHHE Johanna Walker https://johannawalker.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/DUEOoIH8tLg Diana Needham https://businessbookpartners.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/Tn-e1vOZYkQ Sheryl Plouffe https://sherylplouffe.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/EL0GdX9OCRA Cindy Skalicky https://onpoint-communications.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/KANyMLgZt7U Meridith Grundei https://grundeicoaching.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/o1rfkZhYRIA Dre Beltrami https://thesolopreneursociety.com Full Episode: h...

Your Own Best Company has featured over 40 interviews since May 2021, and it's time for some reflections and some highlights. Add to that the 90 Virtual Coffee Break shows and you've got a lot to sort through. Join Franklin for some memories, some encouragement, and some gratitude as he looks back on the first year of Your Own Best Company.

▼▼▼Watch and Listen Below▼▼▼ Communication Coach, Cindy Skalicky says, “Introverted public speakers are needed and hard to come by. I want to reach people who have an interest in presenting more but who are unsure how to go about this because it makes them nervous. It does not have to be about getting onto a stage, but often early-stage folks don't even want to share a lot about why they are great at what they do because they feel pushy. I want to help them see the value in preparing messaging for those 'elevator pitch' or 'sales pitch' moments so they can stand in their shoes with confidence and attract more clients.” Cindy is an expert in rhetorical theory - or the science of persuasion. Her passion lies in taking a message in and teasing it apart to determine its overall effectiveness and persuasiveness. She helps clients understand the power of persuasion by teaching Aristotle's hidden gem of genius, the rhetorical triangle. Cindy is originally from Chicago;...

  I've hosted the Artist 2 Artist concert series for over seven years now. The idea for this series happened when I participated in the former Arts Incubator of the Rockies Evolve program. It wasn't the project I ended up doing for the program, but after the program ended it was the project that actually survived. For the first several years the series was held in various galleries, cafes and creative spaces around Northern Colorado. Despite my best efforts the series never quite achieved the goal I had set for it of expanding the audience for both art and music by presenting both in a setting and manner where each enhanced the other. The few people who did attend really got it. We had some great experiences but I was starting to think that it had run its course. In 2018 that all changed when Elizabeth Morisette from Museum of Art Fort Collins reached out and asked me if I would consider hosting the series at the museum. While I was skeptical that it would be successful I still...

100 Ways is a brainstorming exercise that use for myself and with clients to help generate ideas beyond those that are obvious. I find brainstorming for a designated length of time distracting because I get concerned about time running out and I don't focus on generating ideas. 100 ways is simple. Set a specific goal at t eh top of the page, and then write down 100 ways to attain that goal, with no regard for how long it takes to get to 100. Want to find a way to make $5000? Write down 100 ways and you'll probably find more than one way you can attain that goal. Some of your ideas will surprise you. Here's a simple worksheet that you can use.