Franklin Taggart's Blog

  Friday potpourri... Sometimes we need to find part-time or full-time work to do to cover financial bases while we build a career, a business, or finish a passion project. My encouragement is to think strategically about the jobs you apply for and see if they can be one of the stepping stones in the direction you're already going. Want to be a professional speaker? Look for jobs within organizations that will be important partners as you pursue speaking opportunities. All these organizations require people with a variety of skills and experience. See if they have an opportunity for you that will also help you build your network for future opportunities. Also, stay tuned for a recorded version of my talk, Marketing LEssons, from the First Dau of Kindergarten. I gave that presentation again today, and it's fun to see the aha moments happen as people realize they've had all the relationship skills they need for marketing since their earliest friendships. Finally, you're m

The most common challenges I both experience and hear about social media are that it's overwhelming and difficult to keep up with. It can be repetitive work with mundane tasks lined up for days. Today's guest offers an option that many may find helpful in getting their social media task list under control. Jess Kotzer has been involved in digital marketing for several years and she's discovered a large number of tasks that can be easily automated so that entrepreneurs can get many hours of time back. In this short introduction, Jess shares some ways you may already be using automation in your email, scheduling, and basic social media posting, but she takes it many steps further, giving us a glimpse into how a tool like Airtable can be used to automate an entire content production and distribution workflow. If you have questions about how you might use automation to take some of your most overwhelming tasks off your plate, Jess is the first person I'll send you to. #soci

A warm and blessed Autumnal Equinox to you! Today actually felt like Fall here - a high temp of 58F, some steady afternoon and evening rain, and the desire for something warm for dinner all seemed seasonally appropriate. It reminds me that I get busy this time of year as people realize it's time to start taking their project dreams off the shelf and get working on them. The majority of my coaching clients are people who want to make things and then make money with those things. The most common examples are blogs, podcasts, books, YouTube channels, and small businesses. Some people are asking for help with planning the upcoming year, or expanding their vision for something they've already started. All I can say is that I always look forward to this time of year and the people who ask me to help them get these things done. The hard part for me is turning people away, but coming into this busy season, I only have space to take on a few new coaching agreements. If you'd like to

Why spend time on things like values, vision, and mission for your work? Because those are the subconscious thing people are attracted to. Client avatar worksheet is impossible to finish, or it just doesn't work? Maybe you need to spend some time clarifying your values video and mission. Maybe you could work more on articulating your specialty. Then the people who need it will be easier to find. Are your values front and center in your messaging? Try that and see if people are drawn to them. Do you try to hide your personality in the interest of being more professional? Maybe that is keeping people from seeing you and becoming interested in what you're doing. Are you reluctant to share your truth because some people might be offended or excluded if you do? Maybe that is what is keeping people from finding and seeing you. Attracting clients to your work isn't rocket science. Don't make it harder than it has to be. #customer #marketing #values 

In a morning conversation with an online course client, the topic turned to creating a lead magnet to promote her course and to bring people to the enrollment page. She's done PDF ebooks for email opt-ins before, but she doesn't have the time to do anything that elaborate for the course. I showed her a simple checklist I use for my Quiz Quick Start course and how I put it right on my course enrollment page. I also made a Canva template for a checklist that you can use to build your own. You can see my Canva checklist design here: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFG-soc_Vg/view?utm_content=DAFG-soc_Vg&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink You can download a blank checklist Canva template here: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFMtCWqng0/MRhNzjG2_SeBG6CJT2MO7w/view?utm_content=DAFMtCWqng0&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink&mode=preview Canva is a product I use every day. I'm also a Canva a

After finishing the three courses I released over the summer, I took Robbie Samuels' advice and took a month off from production. (He talks about this in his wonderful book, Small List, Big Results that you can get here with my Associate's link: https://amzn.to/3xyGkKg ) I've read the book a few times and this was one of the practices he suggested that stood out.  The time off isn't necessarily idle time. It's time to reflect on what I learned and to identify parts of the process that I could improve. One of the things I have become aware of is how long it takes to edit course videos. As I looked back on the three projects, I realized that shooting the videos took very little time. I could record 5 - 6 lesson videos in an hour. Each course had about 30-45 lessons, so my video shoots accounted for between 8 and 9 hours of work. Editing the same 5-6 videos added about 2-3 hours of production time, so looking back over the process, I could have gained around 25 hours

If you're an entrepreneur and you've tried other people's blueprints, you may have found that their steps didn't work for your business. In this topical deep-dive, Erica Holthausen of Catchline Communications and Audrey Holst of Fortitude and Flow return to talk through some of the reasons for this phenomenon. In this episode, we talk about: ** Finding Your Business Fingerprint Instead of Buying Blueprints ** The difference between Aha moments and Uh-Huh moments ** The inner nudge toward transparent pricing ** Finding the business practices that feel best ** Entrepreneurship without training wheels ** Learning to listen to your body's messages Find Audrey at https://fortitudeandflow.com/ and on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-holst/ Erica is discoverable here:  https://www.catchlinecommunications.com/ and on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericaholthausen/ Franklin Taggart's blog: https://franklintaggart.com and on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.