Franklin Taggart's Blog

In this Coffee Break, I include a couple of short exercises I give to people who feel like impostors. I think we've started to make Impostor Syndrome more of a diagnosis than it needs to be.  I believe the feelings associated with Impostor Syndrome are normal, and they happen as a part of our trying new things, taking on new roles, and showing up in our social circles in new ways. They're normal psychological protections we have to help us guard against painful relational outcomes like embarrassment, rejection, and abandonment. Real frauds and con artists don't tend to feel this way. They're intentionally defrauding people to get something they want. Embarrassment, rejection, and abandonment are not their concerns. You are not intentionally defrauding or conning people. You're expanding who you are in the world. Like every other feeling, these anxieties and fears will pass. Just don't let them push you away from the thing you were inspired to do. Use the exercis

If you find courses on social media and content marketing from just a few years ago, the most common message was to be pumping out original content on every possible channel as often as you could. At that time, it may have been possible to manage that many channels without much difficulty. There were fewer channels with fewer options on each. Now, there are a dozen content options on each channel, and the communities we found online a few years ago seem to have fragmented into smaller and smaller segments. We feel that to stay ahead of the curve with our marketing and promotions, we have to be online during as many waking hours as possible and automate the rest. In this Coffee Break, I share how I discovered for myself how to be in the right place at the right time after I got burned out trying to be visible everywhere, all the time. For those of us who work in the DIY space, it's becoming more important than ever to find the places where our people are spending time and paying att

There is a place for networking with peers and colleagues. It's a great way to learn new skills and develop capabilities. It's a good place to find mentors. And for some, it may be a good place to find clients, but for most of us, the group of people we need to reach will be somewhere else. In Nashville, I went to a songwriter's open mic almost every night. The writers I met there were mostly at the same level in their careers as I was, just getting started in the professional realm. The writers who were successful were rarely seen at events like this. They still had their peer circles, but they were smaller and less publicly visible. In coaching, I don't see the top eschelon of coaches hanging out in the 20k member Facebook coaching group. That group is facilitated by a coach who coaches coaches. He's building his client list, and he limits every other member from trying to do the same in the group. A big part of success is finding the places where our people congr

The few weeks before Halloween each year seem to be the last time during the year that things can slow down enough to give time for reflection before the holiday frenzy begins. This year, I don't think I was quite ready for this time to arrive. This has been one of my most productive years ever, but it has flown by, and I'm not quite ready to go into the standard end-of-year activities. I've never been one to participate in Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, or Cyber Monday. The hype is too much stimulation, and I prefer to wait until January and February to go into marketing and sales mode. This year, I'm in a different rhythm that I can trace back to the decision to flip the production vs. consumption ratio and put more of my time toward finishing the things I start instead of getting distracted by information, learning, and studying.  I've still got a few projects to finish, and I'm ready to start letting next year's vision bubble up in my imagination

Today was the third day in a row I heard from someone how hard it has been to find customers, clients, or an audience. Most of the time, when I hear this complaint, I start by asking which people they've been spending the most time with. There are usually two responses - either they've not been spending time with people at all, or they've been spending time with others in their profession. Both situations tend toward the problematic. Isolation for solopreneurs, freelancers, and artistic creators is often built into the path. The career, by nature, tends to favor solitude and can be a kind of lonesome existence. Much of the difficulty with these folks is balancing the need for quiet, creative space and the ongoing need to cultivate customer relationships and generate business.  But the group who spend most of their time with people in the same professional pond either have to adapt their services for peers and colleagues or find another pond. This is the situation that's

If you've just met me, you probably don't know that I'm a fanatic about online quizzes, and my software of choice for such things is Interact. In this Coffee Break, I share some of the experimenting I've been doing with quizzes and some of the ways your business or organization could be using them to create valuable, memorable, interactive experiences for your site visitors and social followers. And I also want you to know about the learning you can do about the people who are attracted to what you're doing. All this is in preparation for an upcoming event next week that I will encourage anyone who is even minimally interested in quiz building to attend. The Interact Quiz Mastermind will be happening October 11-13 online, featuring some of the industry's best quiz builders and marketers. Don't wait to sign up. Just go to https://bit.ly/QuizMastermind to learn more and enroll. In addition to the expert instruction, you'll be offered some amazing deals on

My business is almost completely driven by personal referrals. I'm being introduced or making introductions almost daily. Today, I remember when I was introduced, and I wasn't ready for it, resulting in blown opportunities, embarrassment, and a tarnished professional reputation. So the other reason for this topic...I've made introductions and had people come back to me asking me why in the world I thought that would be a good connection. The person who had asked me for the introduction was not ready to meet the person I introduced them to. Embarrassed and tarnished yet again. Your success depends on relationships. Professional relationships depend on things like clarity, intent, and preparedness. I've had people get mad when they ask me to make an intro, and I ask them to do their homework first. I'm just not willing to risk my rep by introducing someone to an esteemed colleague and having them show up unready. Preparedness suggestions within... #introductions #refe

I was asked today how I make these videos and podcasts so quickly. The short answer is that I cut corners. I don't make unique thumbnail images, my editing is light at best, I don't care if I say um or stammer, and I use the same templates daily for videos, images, and descriptions. The tools I use are Camtasia video recording and editing software from Camtasia, Canva Pro templates for graphics, a simple framework for descriptions, and automated distribution through Anchor. My content ideas most often come from conversations I've had within a day or two before and are not scripted or structured. I record the video with Camtasia using a template I made just for the coffee break. The template has front and end graphics, a pre-formatted title and text overlay, and a placeholder where my video will go. Once the video is recorded, I place it in the template, change the title overlay, trim the beginning and end of the recording, and add fades between the video elements. Then I re

Getting ready for my weekly book discussion with a friend Monday morning. We've been reading a couple of good ones. Most recently, we've been reading Originals by Adam Grant and The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker. Both are beautifully written. Originals is more in line with my interests, and I enjoy following Adam Grant on social media. His posts are consistently worth reading. The Art of Gathering seems to have timeliness since we're only now more fully coming back together for face-to-face connection. How we learned to gather almost seems like it doesn't quite fit. I'm going to share some affiliate links for the titles mentioned here. Originals: How Non-Conformists Rule the World by Adam Grant https://amzn.to/3SLXRr7 The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker https://amzn.to/3SwEQZv Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose https://amzn.to/3C5pbsT The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie https://amz

More and more entrepreneurs are discovering that their quick-start tendencies, fast-moving attention, and attraction to doing things their own way instead of following convention are indicators of neurodiversity. For many, this realization brings an understanding of why past situations may have been so difficult for them. Ross Murker's is one of these stories. After beginning to suspect and self-diagnose his own tendencies, earlier this year, he officially received a spectrum condition diagnosis.  This confirmation answered many questions he'd had for years - difficulty with socialization, holding a steady job, and wondering why success had eluded him. In his story, we'll hear how he found his way from being unmotivated in school, serving in the military, bouncing from career to career, and eventually finding his way into entrepreneurship. Find Ross on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RossMurkerSuccessEngineer And to enroll in his new community, visit https://plusonegoo

Sharing the podcast panel today at Founded in FoCo, I was struck by how each of us on the panel had been through major path changes in our lives and careers. In our own way, each of us had decided to turn our backs on convention and move in a self-determined direction. And just before the panel, I'd had a wonderful catch-up conversation with a friend I hadn't seen in a few years. I was struck by a similar story that she told of finally reaching the point where she could no longer tolerate the way life had become and was motivated to make some significant changes in her career. For me, one pattern has been to hold on to circumstances that my soul wants to leave behind, and I have to get to a place of serious discomfort and rage before I'm willing to start letting go. As I've gotten older, I've wondered if there aren't earlier warning signs that I could pay attention to before getting to the point of severity. In this Coffee Break, I share some insights I've s

I've been asked three times this week if it's too late to get into content marketing, or more specifically, YouTube or podcasting. My answer is no, it's not too late. The days of easy audience building on those channels may indeed be a thing of the past, but there is still room for every unique voice out there, especially if they have a new angle to share or a specialty that hasn't been widely discovered. I think it's smart now to be more narrowly targeted with your show topic. Most of the general topics have been done into the ground, but the niches within those topics may have never been touched. Do your research and see what gaps there are in your specialty area. Make your channels about that. Fill in the gaps with your knowledge and point of view.  I see the online realm as a mosaic with an untold number of unique tiles. Your tiles are just as important to the composition of the picture as all the rest. The one thing that hasn't been saturated yet is your ma

I'll be participating in a panel discussion on podcasting this Friday, September 30, 2022, for the Founded in FoCo event. If you're located in Northern Colorado and would like to attend, the free event is detailed here: https://foundedinfoco.com In getting ready for the panel, I've been going over my own experiences in podcasting. I did my first in 2010 as a part of a home recording content channel I had. It lasted only for about a dozen episodes before life interrupted, but I remember the learning curve back then was very steep, and the pieces that had to be put together were numerous compared to blogging which took about ten minutes to set up. My next podcast happened in 2017. Making Your Own Way was a podcast that featured interviews with many of my friends and clients who had decided to leave behind the conventional career and life paths and forge their own. Make Your Own Way also lasted for about a dozen episodes, and I changed the podcast's theme to The Reset. The

Some of us believe that we can turn our successes into formulas and that if we can just figure out what people want to see and hear, they'll want to consume the content we create. We study analytics to see any patterns of predictable behavior to replicate what has already been successful, only to find that we could release the exact same video on two different days and get two entirely different reactions.  Yet we keep looking for the magic formula - that one piece of virality that will push our visibility from obscurity to influencer overnight. We study trends and attempt to read the minds of potential content consumers, trying to know in advance what they will be in the mood for and then bending our creativity in that direction.  It seems that of those who have been successful, extremely few were overnight. The majority of people who have grown large audiences have been consistently releasing the best content they could muster, and the audience decided if it was interesting or no

Don't worry about the future. Learn to find a better feeling right now. It's amazing to see how the body-mind resets itself automatically when the fixated focus of our awareness lets go of a troubling thought. Today I'm working on taxes. My first reaction to taxes is usually dread. I dig up old memories of not being prepared, owing more money than I had, and facing penalties and debt. Remembering those things freaks me out a little. But I don't keep my focus there. As I sift through receipts, bank statements, and calendars, my awareness shifts to a larger story of my past year.  All the people I worked with were happy to pay me to work with them. All the things I was able to buy for myself and my family. All the ups and downs I made it through. As I start to think of all these other things, my feelings change. In this Coffee Break, I share my opinion that we get too wrapped up about creating our future through thinking that we forget we're actually creating our pres

What if you don't know what you should be doing? Or if you don't have a clear sense of your life's purpose? Or what if it's no big deal and you just need to do anything for money for a little whole? All good questions that are the topic of today's Virtual Coffee Break. If you're at a place where you don't know what's next, but you do know you need to change direction, there are a few things I'll encourage you to do. 1. Make a list of all the things you don't want to do. Sometimes this shakes the cobwebs loose and makes you aware of things you truly want. 2. Follow your curiosity. Don't judge it; go with it and see where it leads. It kills cats, but not humans. 3. Line up for more education. You don't have to get a degree, but you can find an interesting subject and start learning more. 4. Find someone who is not financially or emotionally dependent on you and tell them honestly how you're feeling and ask if they have suggestions or gu

Today, I visited Grace Yoga and Wellness in Loveland, Colorado, a business owned by my friends Nicole and Ryan Murphy. I've been inspired by their story since I've known them, but today I'm even more inspired after seeing what their business has become. To learn more about them and the business they've created, I'm going to recommend visiting their website, https://lovegraceyoga.com   You can read their story there and see where faith, vision, courage, and hard work can lead. Even if you're not a local resident, I'd encourage you to just hear and see what they've created.  If you are local, you need to go for an in-person visit sometime soon. There is something there literally for everyone. I wish Nicole, Ryan, and all others associated with Grace Yoga and Wellness a happy 11th anniversary in business. You've achieved something that most small business owners and founders never reach, and your success is well deserved! #smallbusiness #yoga #lovelandc

  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