Franklin Taggart's Unconventional Life Blog

  Your Own Best Company podcast listeners heard me interview Michelle Nedelec back in May about the rebellious nature of entrepreneurship. Click here if you missed it! Since that episode, I've had more opportunities to talk with Michelle on two of her podcasts, The Business Ownership Podcast and The Little Blue Pill for Business Podcast. Michelle is a brilliant entrepreneur, a prolific podcaster(hosting and producing five shows at last count), a top-notch interviewer, and wickedly funny for the win.  I'll feature my interviews below, but in case you want to get in touch with her, Michelle can be found at https://michellenedelec.com , and on LinkedIn at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellenedelec/ . Our first conversation was for The Business Ownership Podcast on the topic of Creating a Creative Business We had a lot of fun talking about how creative people with little or no business experience can learn the ropes quickly and develop the business that allows them to cont...

 ▼ Watch and Listen Below! ▼ For coaches, consultants, and other experts, reaching new audiences with your messages, experience, and offers is one of the biggest business challenges. You'll be given a litany of options that will include blogging, YouTube, social media strategy, public speaking, podcasting, and whatever marketing soup of the day everyone is raving about. Erica Holthausen has a better idea. Share your expertise with the masses by publishing articles in major publications like Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur, and professional journals. The digital realm has opened many doors for experts to share their writing that weren't available even a few years ago. Erica's coaching programs help professionals plan, write, pitch, and place their articles in publications that will expose thousands of new people to their work. From here, you'll want to join her for her free Q and A session, Pitched to Published here: https://www.catchlinecommunications.com/p2p.html While you...

▼Watch and Listen Below!▼ Some of the most challenging times for self-employed people are those when we both need to attend to personal crises and change while continuing to do what our businesses require. In this episode of Your Own Best Company, Audrey Holst returns and offers some keen insights into her own process and experience that will help us all navigate times like these. Audrey has been my guest a couple of times before, and I love the quality of our conversations. She's candid and articulate, and she openly shares the real stories that offer deep empathy and hopeful suggestions. You can find her work at https://fortitudeandflow.com . Some highlights: **Getting through times of grief and high emotion. **My insight about the distinction between gifts and talents. **Seeing our human limitations in a positive light and challenging the myth of limitlessness. **Understanding will, resistance, and commitment as almost magical human tools. Subscribers to this channel can easily ...

▼Watch and Listen Below!▼ Early in her mortgage business career, a co-worker suggested that Roberta Ravella was well suited for sales. Over the next twenty years, Roberta discovered ways of marketing and selling that were aligned with her own personality, skills, and values instead of the traditional methods that were being taught. In 2019, Roberta stepped into the role of coach and trainer, showing realtors how to discover their own distinct ways of marketing and selling that leverage their strengths and honor their values. For many, this offers a welcome alternative to techniques like cold calling and buying leads. She is also a co-host of the podcast, Grown Women Growing Wealth, interviewing compelling and knowledgeable guests who show women ways to become financially aware and independent. Learn more about the podcast here: https://www.grownwomengrowingwealth.com/ Roberta will be offering a referral generation workshop on July 14th to help realtors build their referral networks thr...

▼Watch and Listen Below!▼ Most solopreneurs and freelancers don't start businesses with the idea that they might one day sell them. They usually just want to build something they enjoy doing that generates the income they want. But Stephen Krausse suggests there may be value being created that will someday be worth passing on. Stephen Krausse helps entrepreneurs buy and sell businesses. In this visit with Your Own Bst Company, Stephen gives host Franklin Taggart a quick view of what makes a #business sellable, mistakes to avoid when buying and selling, and protecting intellectual property, and shares a simple way to know when a business might be ready for a buyer. Be sure to listen for his advice about writing down your "no-go" situation before starting your negotiations. For more information about Stephen and his business services, visit https://beyond50percent.com He is also on social media: @beyond50percent #buyingabusiness #sellingabusiness #entrepreneurship

▼Watch and Listen Below!▼ As an Executive Assistant and a Virtual Assistant, Linda Eskridge realized that much of her responsibility was finding unique and meaningful gifts for the people she worked for to give to prospects, customers, and clients. They wanted more of a personal touch than sending the common branded notepads, pens, and t-shirts. Through these experiences, she had the idea that offering her services as a gifting consultant might actually have a place and Couture Business Gifting was born. Linda is hired by busy entrepreneurs, executives, and yes, their assistants in the process of research, acquisition, packaging, and delivery of gifts that build strong relationships between her clients and their customers. In this episode, she lets us know: ** The importance of building good relationships with customers. ** Research to find the interests and passions of the gift recipients. ** Creating a progressive gifting strategy. ** Remembering to include the gatekeepers. And more....

▼▼▼Watch and Listen Below!▼▼▼   Personal development insights from season 1 guests of Your Own Best Company - a podcast for people who love to work alone. Eli Hans https://outoftheblueshow.com Full episode: https://youtu.be/i-tM_AMKqMs Yifat Cohen https://yifatcohen.com Full episode: https://youtu.be/lVPPbP5neUY Regan Espinosa https://thevisitbox.com Full episode: https://youtu.be/w169MuW_b7A Larry Kaul https://revenueclimber.com Full episode: https://youtu.be/GivtiK9il_M Karen Diffey https://ksdcoach.com Full episode: https://youtu.be/w-Ytd3O7aWI Joanie Connell, PhD https://flexibleworksolutions.com Full episode 1: https://youtu.be/SwtPHHp60iE Full episode 2: https://youtu.be/fcsMMxcNCRM Joseph Bennett https://artbybennett.com Full episode: https://youtu.be/jBP8PK8o6ZU Heather Chavin https://gogodone.com Full episode: https://youtu.be/ElcRR5Yhfy8 Alan Heymann https://peacefuldirection.com Full episode: https://youtu.be/roAUEMQZZe0 LeAndra Foster https://linktr.ee/elanlyfe Full epi...

▼▼▼ Watch and Listen Below!▼▼▼ Some of the best creativity-themed moments from season one of Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart. Cheryl Benedict https://thewisdomoftransition.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/7typuPJFogI Jillian Lee Antinora https://jillianleeantinoramusic.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/k7o7-xLvfU4 Cynthia Trevino https://shemarketsmentor.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/g3Yg2JcKh9M Breanna Gunn https://breannagunn.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/1piz0i-zHHE Johanna Walker https://johannawalker.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/DUEOoIH8tLg Diana Needham https://businessbookpartners.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/Tn-e1vOZYkQ Sheryl Plouffe https://sherylplouffe.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/EL0GdX9OCRA Cindy Skalicky https://onpoint-communications.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/KANyMLgZt7U Meridith Grundei https://grundeicoaching.com Full Episode: https://youtu.be/o1rfkZhYRIA Dre Beltrami https://thesolopreneursociety.com Full Episode: h...

Your Own Best Company has featured over 40 interviews since May 2021, and it's time for some reflections and some highlights. Add to that the 90 Virtual Coffee Break shows and you've got a lot to sort through. Join Franklin for some memories, some encouragement, and some gratitude as he looks back on the first year of Your Own Best Company.

▼▼▼Watch and Listen Below!▼▼▼ If you have a product, service, or program priced over $3500.00, Yifat Cohen will help you sell many more of them. Yifat is a digital marketing pioneer and innovator who helps entrepreneurs create strategies and systems that routinely deliver remarkable revenue returns. How does she do it? In this interview she lets us look behind the curtain (spoiler alert: it’s all about using technology to build trusting relationships).  Yifat, also known as The Wizard of Jackpot Moments, is an international speaker, a digital engagement expert, an online community builder, and a live video aficionado. She was one of the first non-Google employees to be invited to speak to actual Google employees about their own products. After building a large community on Google+, which disappeared from the social media realm with little warning, she has become an outspoken advocate for “not building on rented property.” In other words, build your own community and bring people th...

▼▼▼Watch and Listen Below!▼▼▼ Are you ready to toss out complicated overly automated tech and funnels that are expensive and time-consuming to build, never work as well as people told you they would, and honestly make you want to tear your hair out?   My guest in this episode is Cat Stancik, The Lead Boss.  She's going to share a simple and strategic approach to consistently fill your pipeline with highly qualified leads that are ready to buy, so you can hit your revenue targets predictably and spend your time the way you want. Known as the Lead Boss, Cat works with time-crunched Experts and Entrepreneurs, who want to multiply their 6 figures over and over again to scale past 7 and beyond. To download Cat's three-part training, including her one-hour-a-day lead gen strategy, social media swipe file, and close script, visit https://fullybooked.ceo !

Video and Audio below ↓↓↓ Marketing and selling can both be intimidating activities to new business owners, but they are the lifeblood of your business. Alison Proffit is a Soulful Sales & Profitability Success Coach, helping small businesses approach their sales and pricing strategies from the heart instead of just the head. She’ll work with you on mindset, clarifying offers, up-leveling prices, and how to confidently sell through the art of connection with the support of customized scripting work and role-playing sales conversations. Selling becomes less stressful and abundantly more fun when working with Proffit Coach! Alison attempted to start her own coaching business 4 times. The key word there was "attempted". Each of these attempts failed. Primarily because of a lack of knowledge of what it meant to be a good salesperson. Having worked in the HR field for 15 years and receiving coaching certification, the business ideas were good ones, and the services that she of...

4 in 10 adults say that public speaking is their greatest terror. And the Association of American Colleges and Universities listed public speaking as the most in-demand job skill that employers need but can’t find in job candidates. Those of us who are self-employed aren’t exactly off the hook either. Strong speaking skills are a necessity for many of us as we work to represent our businesses and attract new clients to our services. Communication skills are fundamental to our success and those who invest in building theirs are ahead of the game. Meridith Grundei helps good speakers become great speakers. As a speaking coach and trainer she’s worked with every kind of individual and organization; from the woman executive who needs to deliver a high-impact report to her board of directors, to small nonprofit agencies, to teams within the most well-known Fortune 500 companies. Meridith brings her decades of storytelling, stage performance, professional directing, and education to help vis...