Franklin Taggart's Blog

Yesterday, My friend Jeff Finlin and I gave the pilot session of a new workshop called Making Your Own Way. In the last year my focus in coaching has largely become helping creative people to find direction, get things started and finished, and mostly to identify the real impact they are making with their work. Creative professionals frequently wonder to themselves and out loud just what the value of their work is. I know that's been a regular inner dialog for me. Some great discussions in yesterday's workshop helped to bring some clarity to the subject, and a comment in a message at church this morning also brought it home to me. Creative work matters for two huge reasons; it connects us on deeper levels and it feeds our soul. A big part of the workshop is about the distinction that I see between a person's gift and their talents. We talk about that often we lump the two into the same definition. I don't think that quite captures the essence of your gift. I've wr

There is such a wealth of information floating out here in internetland. I've run across another couple of podcasts that are doing it right. The first, Business Reimagined from Danny Iny and the awesome team at Mirasee(formerly Firepole Marketing) is creating a standard for podcasting that is inspiring and excellent in every way. I downloaded all of the available episodes and have been listening to them in the car every time I go somewhere. Great guests, including people like Randy Gage , Nancy Duarte , and my latest new favorite author, Taylor Pearson(The End of Jobs) share insights and tips in a bounteous stream. Several episodes have been played on repeat, most notably the interview that Danny did with Donald Miller of StoryBrand. Some of my friends familiar with the Christian publishing world will likely recognize the name of this author of books like Blue Like Jazz, and last year's Scary Close. Donald has created an exceptional framework for shaping your message in a va

I went through many years of my life seeking romantic love. From the earliest times when I figured out that people could couple up, that’s what I wanted. Whenever I’d meet a new person the first thought would be “I wonder if she’s interested?” There wasn’t a slight possibility for friendship, just a hope that I’d finally have found “The One” who would satisfy that longing and make me whole. No wonder they’d run. Barf! The pattern was usually one of two. First, there was the pattern of me falling hard for them and they’d run. Second, vise versa. Either way I spent a lot of time on a roller coaster of seeking, finding and losing that always had an acute layer of pain that would grow over time, just keeping the cycle going. Most of my waking hours were spent obsessing and feeling out of control, wandering all over the countryside looking for Dulcinea. There would also be periods where I’d put on a brave face and show the world that I didn’t need love, that I was just fine by myself,