Franklin Taggart's Unconventional Life Blog

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

As we go through changes large and small in life, sometimes we’re surprised at our emotional swings, elevated anxiety, clouded thinking, and higher stress. In this episode, leadership consultant and executive coach Cheryl Benedict shares insights from her many years of guiding individuals and organizations through all kinds of transitions. She is the author of the award-winning book, The Wisdom of Transition, and the founder of MORF Consulting.  Learn more about Cheryl and her book at https://TheWisdomOfTransition.com   Your Own Best Company podcast and community is hosted by Franklin Taggart. If you are a one-person creative business owner or are thinking of becoming one, you are invited to join our Facebook group at https://bit.ly/YourOwnBestCompanyFB   Thanks for listening, subscribing, and reviewing!

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

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the importance of including more intentional and personalized ways to recognize and appreciate clients’ business. This was triggered by the surprise of winning an award from the local SBDC offices where I offer consulting. My thinking has also been influenced by the book, Giftology, by John Ruhlin who goes to great lengths to learn about the passionate interests of his clients and then sending gifts that are significantly more personalized that the SWAG that is so often given as a way to promote businesses.   I share a couple of examples of people I know who show their customer appreciation in meaningful ways. Renee Shaw’s realty group offers frequent family friendly and cultural events, and they include everyone on their client list. Jose Guerrero and his wife deliver freshly made tamales during the holiday season to customers he serves in his cleaning business.   Thanks for watching! I invite you to subscribe, follow, or send a message to

  Hello and welcome to FranklinTaggart.com! In 2020 I've been going through a significant career transition in addition to my first pandemic. For those who don't know, I've mostly retired from the music profession including stepping down from my music leadership role at Unity of Fort Collins and not actively booking solo performances. I've had a growing desire over the past few years to have only one job, and many of you know that coaching and consulting have been a big part of my expression of gifts and talents for a long time. I'm ready to make that my full-time career. With that there will be several visible changes including a new, upgraded website, new programs for one-person creative businesses, along with a vibrant membership community. I'm so excited by all that will be coming soon and I can't wait to share these exciting developments with you. For the time being I won't be posting much here or on my other community channels except one. I would

Episode 2 in my series on easy online business opportunities: Start an Online Print On Demand Merchandise Shop. I started my shop on CafePress over ten years ago when my music career was interrupted by illness and severe tendinitis. It was an easy way to generate income by licensing my merchandise designs to be printed on a large variety of day to day items - from t-shirts to baby clothes to underwear to shot glasses and hundreds more. This video will introduce you to how POD works, six of the many hosting platforms available now, step-by-step directions on getting started, and some helpful advice from my experience. This is an opportunity that anyone can take advantage of! Here is a great book on getting started quickly in POD online shops. (Amazon Associates link)

  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