Franklin Taggart's Unconventional Life Blog

A Frequently Asked Question for 2023 from people I talk to is - Is it too late to start a creative freelance career? With all the talk about AI, ChatGPT, Midjourney, and whatever the AI flavor of the day is, these friends are rightfully wondering if they've waited too long to get into the game. I don't think it's too late at all. In fact, people getting started now may have an advantage over people who've been at it a while. Enter Sheena McInnes. Sheena is a copywriter who just got into the business in the latter part of 2022. Her first career path was literally in the wilderness as a conservationist and scientist. Ten years into the unpredictable weather patterns, large mosquitos, and non-human trail company (read large wild animals), Sheena found a coach and started looking for the next phase of her work life. She discovered freelance copywriting. Departing from the usual format of teasing valuable goodness from seasoned veteran creators and entrepreneurs, in this epi...

  Persuasive communication is a cornerstone skill for every business owner, and many have never learned effective ways to consistently present influential messages. They may have a compelling offer but haven't established a strong enough connection to support it. Or the reader may be skeptical of claims after trying solutions that haven't worked, but the message doesn't acknowledge their experience. Billy Broas has gathered messaging wisdom from some of the greatest marketing communicators in the world and consolidated that knowledge into an extraordinarily useful framework called The Five Lightbulbs. In this episode of Your Own Best Company, Billy walks us through the framework influenced by copywriting masters like Eugene Schwartz, John Carlton, Gary, Bond, and Kevin Halbert, and David Garfinkel. Using The Five Lightbulbs framework will enable you to tailor your message to your customer's specific circumstances, and it will give you all the components of a complete pe...

After I found the Interact Quiz Builder, I joined the Quiz Collective, Interact's member community. I started attending some training and support events offered there and was introduced to Dawn Petrin and Chant Zak. Dawn offers support for copywriting and email quiz promotion, and Chanti is recognized as the brand evangelist for Interact Quizzes. They have a list of enviable experiences to back up their authority and appeal. Writing quizzes for people like Amy Porterfield, Jenna Kutcher, Joanna Weibe, and many others is just a start. Their intuitive feel for communicating with prospective customers and their energy and enthusiasm come across in all the ways they present their ideas. But wait, there's more! Dawn and Chanti host one of my favorite podcasts, The Entrepreneur's Ecosystem. Yes, this is a business podcast, but it isn't like any other business podcast you've heard. This one feels like a gathering in a rustic living room, with a cup of tea, a glass of wine,...

After getting ghosted on a copywriting job I was hired for by a colleague, I have some things to say about the professional treatment and attitudes you need when you work with creative contractors. It shouldn't amaze me anymore to see just how little creative talents and professions are valued in the marketplace. Anyone who has ever mastered a craft seen as artistic or creative is not treated with the same level of professional respect as a janitor. We're routinely asked to undervalue our work and accept prices that don't cover basic costs. We're asked to deliver perfection on the first try. We're asked to work under ridiculously short timelines. And then when the client doesn't apparently like what we're doing, they don't even give us the courtesy of a phone call? Sorry to say that this doesn't speak well of their business practices, and it makes me wonder how they treat their clients. I'll be slow to refer anyone to these people; before this, I...

▼▼▼Watch and Listen Below▼▼▼ Since 2008, Adil Amarsi has helped clients generate over $821 Million in sales directly from his copywriting. Add to that the amount his consulting clients, copywriting mentees, and students have generated and the total is $1.2 Billion. He’s written advertising copy for top marketing agencies in the UK and US, high-performing ads for Tony Robbins, and campaigns that have added millions to his clients’ bottom lines.  He has also developed a copywriting structure called the StorySelling Matrix that incorporates strong brand identity with a message balanced between emotion and logic, finishing with a Call-To-Action that builds anticipation. To learn more about the StorySelling Matrix, access your download here: https://greatestcopywriteralive.com   Now as a mentor to other copywriters and business owners, Adil teamed up with Shiv Shetti  to form the CMMP: The Copywriting Mastery Mentoring Program. Their purpose with this program is to help mentee...

▼▼▼Watch and Listen Below!▼▼▼ Writing for advertising and marketing looks like it should be simple - use words that can be understood by a 10-year-old, keep your sentences short, and lots of exclamation points – what could be so hard about that? But the truth is that even accomplished writers struggle to find the right words, flow,  and structure to promote their books, their products, and their businesses effectively. It turns out that copywriting is a field with many specialties and specific disciplines that you didn’t learn in high school English class.   In this episode, marketing consultant and copywriter Breanna Gunn helps us to understand more about copywriting, some of the specialties within the field, and why we will want to enlist the help of a professional when it’s time to promote what we offer. We’ll hear about the differences between copywriting and other forms of communication. We’ll learn where to find the right copywriters we need. And we’ll explore the...