Franklin Taggart's Unconventional Life Blog

 Life is a story you tell yourself. Don't like it? Tell a better story. Considering I'm a Wyoming native, it's taken me long enough to find the Longmire series of novels by Craig Johnson. It's nothing crazy, but there were a few decades where I didn't read any fiction until I realized I was becoming a dull boy and signed up for Audible. God knows I don't have the patients to sit down and actually read for pleasure. I recently read the Longmire book called the Western Star. The story was set on a train that was traveling from Cheyenne to Evanston, Wyoming, across the Southern part of the state where I spent many growing up years. The last time I saw my grandfather was in July of 1969 when he dropped my mom, my sisters, and me at the train station in Evanston to take the Union Pacific passenger service to Cheyenne, where my dad was working for the Summer. Gramps had worked on that railroad until retiring just a few years before. Craig johnson's depiction of th

We've talked about what you want to be known for and what specialties of yours you want people to remember. In this coffee break, we talk about another important aspect of niching and branding - core values.  Core values, like passion, can be easily misunderstood. I think core values are the qualities and activities that enliven and animate us. They energize and attract. If we act out of alignment with them, we end up drained and burned out.  In identifying these qualities and centering our work on them, we find that our work becomes an expression of deeper gifts and more meaning. An easy way to start to clarify core values is the activity of telling our personal stories. What are the turning points, the deep aha moments, the teachers, and the experiences that shape who we are? These stories reveal the things and people and places and activities that really matter.  #corevalues #storytelling #meaningfulwork

▼▼▼Watch and Listen Bel;ow▼▼▼ It’s amazing to meet people who feel one hundred percent calm and confident on stage, but who feel timid and uncertain in smaller, unstructured settings. Johanna Walker is a speaking and storytelling coach in Boulder, Colorado. Listen to how she describes her work and the beliefs that drive it:  “I crack open opportunities for people to experience pure, raw truth, then watch them nail their presentations and watch their careers and their lives soar.  I believe everyone has a story that can make a difference in someone's life.  I believe that no matter what message you're trying to convey, you won't get anywhere till you truly connect with your audience.  I believe in the power of bringing your whole body & voice & breath & heart into the room, and speaking from there without apology, even when the idea of it scares the bejeezus out of you.  I believe when you walk right up to your fear and shake its hand, tectonic shifts happen----i

Seth Silvers started his first non-profit organization while still in high school. His experience in organizational leadership and communication ultimately led to an opportunity as a marketing director for another non-profit. In this role he began to see the power of storytelling in marketing. Recently he took the leap and created a marketing consultancy called Story On whose mission is to help businesses of all sizes, but especially small businesses to tell their stories. His new podcast, The Small Business Storytellers Podcast features in-depth interviews with a variety of small business owners telling their stories, insights and wisdom to help other owners on their way. It’s available on several podcast listening platforms: https://anchor.fm/seth-silvers You may find Seth on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StoryOnCo Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sethsilvers/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-silvers-912a7989/ Join the Success with Stories Facebook group: https:/