Franklin Taggart's Unconventional Life Blog

Dear YouTube Subscriber! If you are struggling to find the right words to get people to buy stuff, you're going to want to watch this video! You're about to hear something that will change your world - FOREVER! You'll learn how to breathlessly mesmerize readers step-by-step as they progress toward the one goal - buying stuff! You'll learn these great things: ** How to sound enthusiastic about anything! ** How to use bullet points to drive home your logic! ** How to think in short, meaningless phrases! ** How to manip- er, persuade people to do things they don't really want to do! ** And how to make it all seem innocuous but exciting with the generous use of exclamation points!!! This Virtual Coffee Break is the best thing that has ever happened, ever!!!!! #communication #directresponselimitations #adspeak

Half or more of the people who contact me for career coaching are nearing retirement and are starting to plan for their next phase of work after they retire. In this Coffee Break, I share some of the most common ideas and directions they come up with and some insight into a few of them.  By far, the most satisfied and successful of my retired clients have been those who found an outlet for their creativity in the work path they chose. Many finally allowed themselves the freedom and chance to take their artistic, crafty, or musical dreams seriously. Some people have come to me asking about buying food franchises or joining network marketing programs. I have some pretty rigorous questions for people who are interested in either of those areas. They are definitely not for everyone. If you are nearing retirement but not ready yet to completely stop working, I offer a four-session coaching program to thoroughly identify and evaluate all of your work options so that your retirement years wil

How is it I can take a three-ingredient recipe for pound cake and make it so difficult and cumbersome that I spoil the cake and hate the process? Three conversations today happened on the topic of simplicity. Solopreneurs, especially us creative types, have a tendency to make everything much more grandiose and extreme than things really need to be. And it's wearing us out. From the teacher with the new business model who just made herself physically sick because she felt she had to be on all the time in order to fill her class. The class didn't get all the way full and she ended up with digestive problems. And then there's the new freelancer who has so many ideas and not enough time to finish even one of them, feeling overwhelmed because she's imagining and offering more options than she can manage. And then there's me, who wants to create an online course but ends up making it include everything. Translated: the course never gets finished because it's just too

Four different conversations today centered on the challenge of planning for the ends of things. There's so much we can't know about our futures so we're creating a projecting an imagined future and constructing a plan for that knowing full well that life never goes exactly according to plan. In our businesses, so much energy and effort go into planning for the start of the business, and we get to the middle stages of planning soon enough, but I haven't met many business owners who plan for the end of their business, or for their exit from it. And then there are the times when we find ourselves in the midst of unplanned endings with no vision for the next stage of our lives. How can those times be planned for?  And ultimately there are plans for the ends of our lives. Some of us don't want to think about this at all. Too scary and too painful. But if we neglect these, our families are left to deal with messes that could have been made much easier had they been plann

This morning was a low-energy morning as many of my mornings are. I used to be thwarted by these kinds of emotions. Depression and anxiety are a kind of baseline for me. Over the past few years, I've learned some valuable things about the way our psychology and physiology work that have given me some useful tools and techniques to get myself out of the morning lows and into some useful highs. The first time I read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, the part of the book that was most important for my life at the time was the section about the pain body and how to bring attention to the painful places in our being. I've worked with that ever since then and it's my first tool of choice. I believe that our attention is one of our primary superpowers.  Another helpful resource I found was the understanding of psychology called the Three Principles, articulated by Sydney Banks. In a spiritual awakening experience, he saw the relationship between three constant principles of our p

Pretty bowled over by the news of Taylor Hawkins' death today. He is definitely too young, too soon, and yet he's made a lot of people feel better through his work here. I'm grateful for his music, his smile, his kinetic energy, and for the connections I share with my son through our mutual love for the Foo Fighters and their music. If you have a big idea or a big dream you've been sitting on, waiting for the right time, tools, or circumstances, please get over your fear and just start. Write, play, sing, create, paint, dance, sell stuff - whatever you want to do - DON'T WAIT! Don't pass up this one-time opportunity to enrich and enliven yourself and those around you. You'll create experiences worth having, and you'll be missed more significantly and deeply when you're gone. DON'T WAIT! If you need someone to talk you into it, I'll be happy to help. Get in touch and you'll be doing your thing an hour after our call is finished. #taylorhaw

After two years in business as a brand strategist, Dre Beltrami became a mom. She tried to operate her business according to her pre-parenthood terms and the latest advice from the business gurus but found herself stretched too thin and needing a long break. Like every other business owner, Dre was challenged by pandemics and quarantines to reevaluate everything about her life and her business. Facing her existential crisis head-on, she made some critical decisions about her business model, her marketing strategy, and her online accessibility and visibility. Hear the rest of the story in this full-length interview that was inspired by an email Dre sent out just Wednesday morning. You'll want to join her weekly email list by clicking the orange button on her homepage: https://thesolopreneursociety.com . While you're there take a quiz or two to discover some valuable insights about yourself. And don't forget - The Mom Bundle will only be available next week - March 28-April 1