Franklin Taggart's Unconventional Life Blog

A few weeks ago I interviewed Michael Roderick, an impresario and media maker who I've grown to admire and appreciate. He sends out almost daily emails featuring his thinking on certain topics, and one of his recent messages really struck me. The title was Why a Lot of "Hits" Miss. While we creators like to think we're making something everyone in the world will need and appreciate, the decision is not ours to make. Micheal correctly points out that the market is the decider about what will gain widespread attention, acceptance, and acclaim.  His encouragement is for the creators to engage in the hard work of iteration instead of toiling to determine what the market wants and then create for that. Sadly, that formula rarely produces anything except what has already been popular. My encouragement is to pay more attention to your own resonance as a creator. Make the things that make you tingle, and then share them. I think the only aspect of the hitmaking process the cr...

A lost afternoon at a trout pond with a five-year-old is the inspiration for today's Coffee Break. If we're making money by selling anything, one of the questions we have to ask is whether there is a demand for it. I work with some artists who don't believe there is a demand for things like art, but I challenge them to find a building in the world that doesn't have some kind of creative something somewhere. That said, if what we offer isn't selling, we need to look at a couple of options. Are we fishing in the right pond? Have the fish already been fed? Do we just need to come back tomorrow? Is there anything you can do to stimulate the appetite? The conditions have to be right for the sale to go through. If the horse is full, the carrot won't work. Enough metaphors for now. Go make something and then sell it. #creativebusiness #selling #marketing 

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...

From a young age, Jennifer Spencer was encouraged to engage her creativity and to be culturally aware. Bringing her high achieving personality into the process of writing songs, creating plays, and a passion for fine arts gave her a strong foundation for the turns her life would take as an adult. She’s been successful in business, has patented and marketed her own inventions, and has defined for herself what an artist really is. You can learn more about Jennifer here: http://jenniferspencerart.com http://jenniferspencer.info Her upcoming shows in the Summer of 2019 include: Driven to Abstraction July 10-20, 2019 Expressions Art Group July 24 - August 3, 2019 Both shows are at the Carnegie Center for Creativity, 200 Mathews, Fort Collins, CO 80524 Visit their calendar here: https://www.fcgov.com/creativecenter/calendar