Franklin Taggart's Unconventional Life Blog

  I've known that I am an introvert from the first time I heard the meaning of the word.  Not to be confused with shyness or timidity, my introversion is more about conserving energy and being able to prevent myself from going into a state of sensory overload or overwhelm. Being in noisy and crowded spaces has always been a challenge. I talked about this quite a bit in my podcast, Your Own Best Company.  Upon hearing these things, some friends of mine suggested that  I might qualify as a Highly Sensitive Person in addition to being an introvert. They referred me to the book  The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You  by Elaine N. Aron. I had heard the term HSP in self-help circles but had never looked into it in  any detail.  There were definitely some parallels in the book that related to my experience: Gravitating to uncrowded spaces where solitude could be found. Finding ways to regulate the stimulation in my envi...

  It's been easy to talk about the worst parts of the tech explosion, artificial intelligence, and social media experience. It's noisy, confusing, often unpleasant, and complicated. It's not easy to navigate. Algorithms think they know what you want, but they keep showing you stuff that you wouldn't choose for yourself if you had time to decide anything.  I was on YouTube this morning, looking at the hundreds of videos that were being promoted on my feed. The thumbnails all look the same so as to seem generic. While the once popular promise that the internet and social media were going to offer endless possibilities to be uniquely yourself, the movement seems to be more toward homogeneity. I don't have a lot of time to watch, but I need a better way to choose than endless scrolling and filtering. I've grown more weary of the online world, and I often wonder how useful it really is. There was a gracefulness about the card catalog at the library that made the expe...

  My experience on YouTube has been a cool adventure for the most part. In the midst of spam comments, thumbnails and titles that are intended to coerce, and the noise you sift through to find what you want, miracles can happen. One of those miracles took the form of meeting Matthew Gray of the 50 Tastes of Gray Podcast.  A few years ago, I made a ten-minute video with no advance planning or intention that has become the most popular video on my page. It's about making a graphic overlay for Zoom interviews. That accidental success was the first point of contact.  In the past couple of years, Matthew has reached out to touch base and see how I've been doing. Most YouTube-inspired exchanges are not this thoughtful, but in one of his latest check-ins, he asked if I'd join him on his podcast. I'd made an assumption that the podcast was mostly about food, but that was before I'd properly listened to a few episodes. Matthew just loves good conversations, and he's a ma...

The episode can be heard below. You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to the shows you love. Here are some important links related to the program: The Mindful Evolution Podcast site.  Leah's YouTube Channel. Leah's website. Leah on Instagram . One of the highlights of attending last Summer's Podcast Movement conference in Denver was the random meeting in a discussion on blogging with a new podcaster named Leah Drew. I don't remember the specific content of our conversation, but I remember the instant feeling of connection with a kindred spirit. In the few times we've spoken since the conference, that sense has only been reinforced. Leah was preparing to launch her podcast called The Mindful Evolution Podcast to share her own insights and those of her guests relating to soulful, holistic healing. In passing, we talked about how my own path in the past few years had been about coming face to face with my own shadow self, that side of me that I have want...

Since the public launch of ChatGPT 3 in late 2022, the rapid introduction of artificial intelligence into the mainstream of every aspect of human living has been a central topic of conversation and concern. AI tools have spread across the creative industries like wildfire and have been inserted into every level of task from ideation to packaging. Where we had hoped the robots would take over the mundane tasks of life, instead, we've seen the technology pointed at the big red target on the face of all our creative activities.  While the tech gods have tried to assure us that human labor won't be replaced overnight, we've still seen early signs that the trend will be toward computers and machines doing the work humans once did. This isn't an abnormal pattern. From the earliest development of tools, the whole point has been for human labor to become easier and ultimately redundant. But can we be prepared for how the race will be affected as tech takes over increasingly hig...

  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 ...

  Have you noticed a slowdown in your business in the last year?  You're not alone. A client I was talking with yesterday asked an increasingly common question, "Is it always this hard to find new business?" She opened her consulting business early in 2023 after being laid off from her job in the post-COVID months. She landed a major contract within a month of opening that kept her in the black for most of the year, but that contract isn't being renewed, and now she needs to find new clients ASAP.  She's not the first one to come to me with questions like this in recent months. Costs are increasing, interest rates are rising, wages are not keeping pace, and belts are tightening. When spending slows down, most businesses are impacted at some level.  These downturns can be scary times, especially for new business owners who haven't experienced them before. Consistent, steady growth isn't a pattern we see in the normal nature of things. Sustainable businesses...

  Relationships are hard. One of my supervisors used to say that when I did crisis intervention work. I believe it. The same theme has frequently emerged in recent conversations with friends and clients. We've noticed similarities as the relationship patterns from personal and family life play out in career and business situations. And why wouldn't they? The challenges I face in marketing, selling, and delivering in my business have the same root as the challenges I have as a spouse, dad, son, and brother.  That root is me. But I'm no longer labeling it as a problem. I just have gotten okay with not being great at relationships. "...it's become most important to just acknowledge all the ways I suck at relationships." I'm old enough to have read a lot of books, taken a lot of classes, attended plenty of weekend seminars, encountered encounter groups, and tried every way I know how to be better at it. But at almost 62 years old, I've decided that my odds...