Franklin Taggart's Blog

We all have busy times and somehow we need to carve out a little bit of time for marketing. In this video, I share a simple strategy for those weeks when I only have an hour to work with. Focus on one specific and clear offer, get the copy written for your offer first, make it short and sweet. Then to promote the offer, take advantage of a tool like Canva.com to create a simple social strategy, reuse one basic design, and schedule your social media posts to lead people directly to your offer. There are a number of ways you can use a small amount of time with a great marketing impact. The main thing to remember is that you can be very targeted with your offer and message, and you can be creative in how you draw attention to it. Discover Your Unique Marketing Modality Zoom workshop is coming up on February 25th and March 4th. Enroll here: https://franklin-taggart-coaching.teachable.com/p/discover-your-unique-marketing-modality-zoom-workshop #marketingworkshop #onlineclass #marketingstra

I've had so many clients, especially at the Larimer SBDC who have come to me ready to throw in the towel on their business because marketing has been too taxing and not effective. I've had others who have worn themselves out trying to learn new communication and technical skills that they don't have time for so that they can be more visible across social media platforms. I'm not going to say you shouldn't learn new skills, but for marketing, I believe if you leverage the strengths and preferences you have in a strategic way, you'll be better off than sticking with the learning curve long enough to master it. I landed on the concept of Your Unique Marketing Modality when I realized that I and my clients had better marketing experiences and results when we combined a few things in a highly intentional direction. As we all started to focus our marketing using our strongest communication skills, our influence and arena preferences, and our communities, great things

Since being diagnosed with Graves Disease almost 14 years ago, I've lived with a predictably unpredictable physical condition. Rapid and steep energy fluctuations are common and metabolism or lack thereof makes exercise and weight loss seem impossible. I've learned to live with these challenges and make contributions to my community in spite of them, but there are days, like today, that are just complete down days. I have not been able to get moving and my brain is foggy no matter the mindfulness exercises or yoga that I throw at it. In this Coffee Break, I want to offer some encouragement to others who are faced with similar challenges and limitations. One-year, three-year, and five-year plans feel like exercises in futility when we don't know from one day to the next what we're going to have to work with. But I still think we can find ways to work with what we've got. In my case, I know that I will have days like today where I have to move slowly, rest more than u

Eli Hans is a multi-passionate Renaissance man, having worked on his own for thirty-five years, reinventing his career several times, in television, special events production, as a voiceover actor, interior designer, life and business coach, holistic cancer coach, and his latest iteration as the writer and performer of his mostly one-man show: Out of The Blue, a Miraculous Musical. In 2009, he and his husband Joseph Bennett exited the American rat race by moving to an artistic ex-pat community in Mexico called San Miguel de Allende. Eight years ago, though flourishing in their new lives, Eli was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive type of cancer. That's when everything changed. Having about a 10% chance of survival, Eli focused 100% of his energy on his successful recovery. Confronting his mortality helped him realign his goals and for the past 6 years, he's been supporting others to discover their passions to create meaningful work, using their natural abilities to make a dif

A couple of thought-provoking questions from this morning's presentation on Marketing Lessons We All Learned In Kindergarten. First, how can we make social media a more life-enhancing, enriching experience? And how can we realize the power of social media tools to bring us more together instead of driving us further apart. No easy answers, but I have some initial places to start. In this Coffee Break, I ask all of us, how can we raise the bar in our use of social media? #socialmediamarketing #unitingpeople #communitybuilding

If you're experiencing any lack or scarcity in your life or business, here's an experiment. It's based on a process therapist and speaker Barbara Sher used with encounter groups and other audiences for many years. The experiment is simple. Get very clear on the opportunity you want. Write it down or record yourself describing it in as great a detail as you can. Identify any obstacles you perceive as being in your way. Then ask your community to help you find it. I'm interested to see how this goes for you. Of course, I can't guarantee anything, but I find it remarkable how frequently this process works to help people get what they want. The opportunity I want is to help two people who have been in business for one to three years who are finding their businesses difficult to maintain and sustain. I'm especially interested in helping people if their struggle has anything to do with marketing their products and services. If you or someone you know fits this descrip

The impending snow in Colorado has me thinking about preparedness. I'm not. I can't say that preparedness is one of my strong suits unless you count being prepared to improvise.  If the plows get the roads cleared quickly enough I'll be giving an in-person talk at Desk Chair Workspace here in downtown Loveland. My topic is Marketing Lessons We All Learned In Kindergarten. It's a call to get back to simplicity and basics in the ways we bring our businesses and customers together. We feel a lot of pressure to show up everywhere all the time and we rapidly find that it's not a sustainable business model or lifestyle. I think we can learn a lot by remembering how easy it was to start friendships when we were young. The same steps are what we use to build relationships with customers - Attract, Introduce, Share Enthusiasm, Find Things In Common, Make Invitations, Play Together, Create Memories. It doesn't have to be more difficult than that. Let's get out of our

There are certain things about life that we have very little control over. The inevitability of death, the basic level of intelligence we're born with, our personalities, and physical limitations are just a few of the cards we're dealt and have to learn to play with.  Everyone's hand is unique from everyone else's so the strategy that works for anyone else will have to be adapted or scrapped according to the hand we're playing. The same is true in our businesses. They are as unique as our fingerprints, and while some of the activities are similar from business to business, there is a unique set of circumstances and traits that every business owner must learn to play with. That was my motivation in developing the concept and practice of Marketing Modalities. I've seen that people who leverage their innate strengths and preferences in the way they bring their business into the world have a greater likelihood of success than when they try to use another person'

You have to try things in order to learn. Sometimes the things you try turn out as well or better than you'd hoped, sometimes they fall short. In this Coffee Break, Franklin shares some thoughts about things he's learned about failure. The successful software developer whose sophomore product tanked after nearly three years' investment of time and money. The well-known motivational coach and speaker who faced the pain of bankruptcy and a broken marriage. And Franklin's own story of changing course when his best songwriting efforts landed him a job as a carpet installer in a Nashville motel. Sometimes we need to regroup, redesign, and relaunch. Sometimes we need to move laterally to another opportunity. And sometimes we need to surrender to the greater scheme that is unfolding and ask to be shown our next place in it. #failure #selfdoubt #soulexpansion

Introversion is not a disability. Seems like there are a bunch of advice videos for how to deal with introverts. I think it's time to talk about how to live with extroverts. There needs to be a weekend workshop on how to be quiet and reflective, or how to live with less stimulation. The inspiration for this topic is that I live with two extrovert people and very likely one extrovert dog. The need for stimulation is constant around here and it just got more interesting today with my son's acquisition of a new drum set. I have a small room with headphones not attached to any device. I go there when I need to cleanse myself of the overstimulation around me. You'll hear an example in the video. Thanks for joining my Coffee Break! #introvert #livingtogether #extrovert

▼▼▼Watch and Listen Below!▼▼▼ People who work for themselves have a unique opportunity to build and grow businesses in their own way and on their own terms. For many of them, there is no blueprint for the building process, and they find themselves getting stuck with unanticipated circumstances and challenges. In those times, self-employed people can feel like there is no help available and that they are completely alone with their difficulties. Larry Kaul is a resource for solo business owners in times like these and beyond. His decades of experience in starting and growing seven-figure businesses in which he’s been self-employed make him uniquely qualified to help other business owners through these tricky waters.  His Revenue Climber Expedition leads self-employed business owners to move faster in the right direction, identify critical elements that hold them back, find new pathways and change trajectories, and stop wasting time on actions that don’t work. Your next step is to schedu

I gave a talk today and shared a strategy I use for creating business opportunities. Central to my strategy is my motto: Show Up, Pay Attention, Participate. I've found that when I do these things as a regular part of my routine, good things tend to come out of it. So I adopted the motto to remind me of my mission and my desire to serve. I love my motto so much tath I put it on merch. My friend, David Schmaltz says that you should start every creative process with the t-shirt. If the idea translates to the t-shirt, it's usually a good one. Check out the merch here: https://www.cafepress.com/happyworkstuff/7765418 I also am announcing my Discover Your Unique Marketing Modality Workshop on February 25th and March 4th. If you want to streamline your marketing process, leverage your innate strengths and preferences, and enjoy a better return with less investment of time and money, this workshop series is for you. Register here: https://franklin-taggart-coaching.teachable.com/p/disc

If you're experiencing lack or scarcity in your business or work, one suggestion I have is to watch how isolated you are. One thing that a business, like we humans, needs is connection. We're designed to thrive in groups of all sizes and shapes. And we're also given a natural process to recover from trauma and pain that often includes periods of isolation. In this Coffee Break, I'm thinking about the important distinction between isolation and solitude. Both have their place, but they're often confused. I heard Barbara Sher give a TEDx talk in which she said that isolation is the real opportunity killer, not attitude, and I think there is something to that. If you're too isolated as you're starting and growing your business, you're going to have more struggles than those who are more well connected and active within the communities they serve. Before you take a marketing or sales class, first reach out to the people who need what you have. Those connecti

I just cleared snow off our sidewalk and driveway and to my surprise found a metaphor I needed relating to a project I need to finish with some urgency. I love shoveling snow but as I've gotten older, it takes longer and I need more breaks. Today, I finished the walks pretty easily but I still had the driveway left to do, which takes a lot more energy. The only way to finish jobs like this is to keep moving one shovelful at a time until the job is done. This is relevant for a talk I'm finishing for Thursday afternoon's appearance at Soulful Entrepreneur Summit. It's been an upgrade of a talk I did a couple of years ago, but what remained to be done was more like a driveway than a sidewalk. It's taken several weeks to get to this point but even a few days ago I wondered if I would ever finish. One shovelful at a time. If you're in the middle of a project and you can't see the end yet, the best you can do is keep chipping away at it. We can only take one step

Like many solopreneurs and freelancers, I've fallen for the belief that you have to be everywhere in order for your marketing to reach more people - every social media channel doing posts, stories, shorts, videos, live videos, reels, carousels, albums, polls, emojis, 24/7/365. And then you have to have a blog, a podcast, an email newsletter, a YouTube Channel, a snail mail publication, and a quarterly postcard to your old alumni mailing list. It was exhausting, impossible to maintain, and ineffective in reaching the right people for my business. A few years ago, I did an experiment. I evaluated all the marketing efforts I'd been doing to see which ones were getting the most desirable results. I wanted to know what they had in common. What I found ended up being the catalyst for my ideas around helping people identify their unique marketing modality. I discovered that the social media and content marketing content that was working best for me featured me in a speaking situation,

Solopreneurs, freelancers, and other small business owners often find themselves stretched thin when it comes to marketing. There are too many channels to choose from, the learning curve to gain new skills can be steep, and it's too expensive to hire an agency to handle it for you. You also may find that it's difficult to find enough time to adequately market your business and that is the beginning of the end for many small and one-person companies. For people in their first year or two of business, I usually recommend having a streamlined strategy for marketing so that your valuable resources can be used effectively and have a desirable return. A central part of this strategy is to identify and leverage your unique marketing modality. Your unique marketing modality is a combination of your strongest communication skills, your preferred relationship channels, your natural influence role, and your preferred venue. Lining these up can have a streamlining effect on your marketi

I must have struck a nerve. Some Passionistas told me I'm full of something icky. Well, Ok then. I think they didn't watch the whole video. They only read the headline. So just in case you're wondering. I love passion. I enjoy it every day. But following your passion still isn't a great idea for career decision-making.  Even the best hitters in baseball miss over two-thirds of their at-bats. Just because you love something once, doesn't mean you're going to love it the same way or at all another time. I love playing guitar and singing, but there are more nights than not that it's a less than passionate experience. Sometimes it's a downright slog.  Does that mean I regret doing it for so long? No way! I'd do it again today, although I would probably do it differently and I would've shot higher so that I didn't have to carry my own gear. But passion wasn't the driving force. The things that drove me then and still drive me today are curiosi

It's been a few years since I've been able to participate in Made In Loveland. I'll be joining the fun this year as a speaker on February 3rd. My topic for the morning will be Marketing Lessons We Learned In Kindergarten: Don't Forget the Basics. Marketing, especially for new businesses can be one of the biggest sources of frustration, confusion, and difficulty. There are so many options - the channels we use, the messages we send, the tools and tactics that fill up our email inboxes - and many times, marketing is the aspect of business that new owners are the least prepared for. They underestimate the time, energy, and money it takes to get their businesses and their customers together. In a mad scramble to cover as many bases as they can, they enlist the help of their high school-aged kids to help with Instagram and TikTok while trying to find time to create and manage an email newsletter that most of their customers never read. And the fees that marketing agencies an

▼▼▼Watch and Listen Below!▼▼▼ If you have a product, service, or program priced over $3500.00, Yifat Cohen will help you sell many more of them. Yifat is a digital marketing pioneer and innovator who helps entrepreneurs create strategies and systems that routinely deliver remarkable revenue returns. How does she do it? In this interview she lets us look behind the curtain (spoiler alert: it’s all about using technology to build trusting relationships).  Yifat, also known as The Wizard of Jackpot Moments, is an international speaker, a digital engagement expert, an online community builder, and a live video aficionado. She was one of the first non-Google employees to be invited to speak to actual Google employees about their own products. After building a large community on Google+, which disappeared from the social media realm with little warning, she has become an outspoken advocate for “not building on rented property.” In other words, build your own community and bring people there

I don't think "follow your passion" is good career advice. At least for me, it hasn't been. We make the common mistake of thinking that our passion is caused by an activity or a circumstance, but passion, like every other emotion, is created by the quality of our thinking from moment to moment.  The feeling of flow, presence, and transcendence is a simple shift in your consciousness to a state of mind in which thinking slows or stops - those moments when our self-consciousness fades into the background and our energy peaks. We mistakenly think that the activity was the reason for the feeling, but we could just as easily slip into a passionate state doing something else. That's why I suggest that passion isn't a reliable guide.  I'll tell you more about your more reliable guide in this Coffee Break. If you are ready to discover and leap into the best expression of who you are, let's schedule a coaching session. Use the contact form on the about page and

Tell me truly - are you spending most of your time producing or consuming? I had some personal revelations late last year about my own habits. I'd been frustrated for a long time about not being able to focus and get things done. I did a time audit late last year and found that I was spending way too much time on Facebook and email and blog posts - basically in a consumption mode - instead of spending my time productively. BIG PROBLEM! Life is short.  In this Coffee Break, I share a few small ideas from my own experience that have helped me gain back hours of time each day that opens the door for a more productive me.  Thanks for watching, listening, subscribing, and sharing!  Want to join me for next week's Soulful Entrepreneur Summit? Get your all-access pass today at https://getsoulfulsuccess.com #productivity #contentcreation #gettingthingsdone