Franklin Taggart's Unconventional Life Blog

Talking to my friend Teresa Funke today and was inspired by her fun idea for celebrating her birthday. Buy one lottery ticket for every year of her life and give those tickets to anyone she meets. Celebration is a central part of our life together as humans. It's a central aspect of living in community and we are unique as a species in that we look for reasons to celebrate - milestones, rites of passage, getting up in the morning - celebration is a human thing. As I've gotten older, celebration has become a much more important thing to remember. I haven't always been good at it, and it still feels awkward, but it matters. More in the Coffee Break about that. A great way to celebrate Teresa would be to buy her book, Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life here: https://www.teresafunke.com/product/bursts-of-brilliance/ #creativity #community #celebration  

▼▼▼Watch and Listen Below!▼▼▼ For the self-employed entrepreneur, a sabbatical might be the last thing you think about doing, and if you were to take one, it would probably have an agenda attached. We don't usually just decide to take time off for just being. After the launch of her book, Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life, author and publisher Teresa Funke was shown by her assistant that she was juggling the management of eighteen projects. Then when the Covid Pandemic started, her three streams of revenue all simultaneously ended. She tried to pivot just like everyone else was, but ultimately found that she was really ready for something else - but what? Finally, in June 2021 she landed on the idea that what was happening could be called a sabbatical, and it wasn't the kind of sabbatical we typically associate with that word. This wasn't going to be a time of focused production, it was going to be something else. Here on Your Own Best Company Teresa tells us the res

  I've hosted the Artist 2 Artist concert series for over seven years now. The idea for this series happened when I participated in the former Arts Incubator of the Rockies Evolve program. It wasn't the project I ended up doing for the program, but after the program ended it was the project that actually survived. For the first several years the series was held in various galleries, cafes and creative spaces around Northern Colorado. Despite my best efforts the series never quite achieved the goal I had set for it of expanding the audience for both art and music by presenting both in a setting and manner where each enhanced the other. The few people who did attend really got it. We had some great experiences but I was starting to think that it had run its course. In 2018 that all changed when Elizabeth Morisette from Museum of Art Fort Collins reached out and asked me if I would consider hosting the series at the museum. While I was skeptical that it would be successful I still

(Video and audio below article) Teresa Funke embodies the modern artist/entrepreneur. She is the owner of Teresa Funke & Company and Victory House Press and the award-winning author of seven novels for adults and children based on true stories from WWII. She is also a nationwide speaker offering keynotes and presentations, and a popular consultant. Teresa has 27 years of experience as an entrepreneur and community catalyst. Her innovative programs and boundary-pushing talks challenge her audiences to change their view of how life and business should be led. Visit her speaker page to learn more about her one-of-kind Bursts of Brilliance™ talks or her motivational keynotes. In this episode of The Reset Podcast we talk about Teresa’s early career decision to self publish, and how she’s navigated her success in that field. We also look at the ways technology has changed the game for writers and publishers. Finally, we cover her most recent transition from writing historical sto