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Changing Directions - Franklin Taggart

This is the 100th and final episode of Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart. I started the podcast in May of 2021 during the height of the quarantine. Many people were faced with working alone for the first time, while others like me relished it. I wanted to encourage and celebrate working alone as an excellent option for people who don't enjoy working on teams or managing others. 

I'd like to say thanks to all who listened. We reached over 31,000 viewers and listeners in the show's two years. I'm happy with that performance. I'm also grateful to every guest for bringing such amazing stories and resources to the listeners. 

I will continue to offer Franklin Taggart's Virtual Coffee Break for the foreseeable future, and I may be considering some collaborative broadcast projects in the upcoming months, too. This has been a fun and rewarding show. I have several hundred clips to share, so it's not going away completely, but new episodes are no longer being produced. 

Onward and upward! 

Working With the Rhythm of Life - Laura Livingston

Is your tank empty? Do you need some time for solitude, recharge, and to reconsider how you've been living, loving, and working? Is willpower not enough to do everything that you've committed to doing?
That's the jumping-off point for this visit with coach Laura Livingston on the Your Own Best Company podcast. This conversation follows up on our last, which was on the topic of listening to your body. 
In this episode, we cover:** Health and business sustainability.** The difference between willpower and empowerment.** Making space for emotional experience.** and inspired action.
Find Laura online at https://lauralivingston.coAnd on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-livingston-coaching/
Thank you for listening, subscribing, reviewing, and sharing Your Own Best Company, a podcast for people who love working alone!
#burnout #worklifebalance #rhythmoflife 

The Deliberate Creator - Camille Miller

 

If the job you love were to suddenly end, would you rather try to find another similar job, or would you try to build a business that brought together your best gifts with people you care about serving? Camille Miller was faced with this kind of decision, and she opted for the latter.  

Not knowing exactly what she was going to do, she started experimenting with different ideas and found her direction, leading to the role of coach, then community builder, and now she's adding soulful adventurer.  In this episode we learn:

** How a high-level membership program is born.

** How personal growth often leads to a shedding of old relationships.

** Deliberate creation isn't just sitting around thinking about what you want.

** How Camille creates strategy with no end game.

** The surprising arrival of a new home close to the beach when she wasn't really looking.

Check out all that Camille has to offer at: https://www.soulprofessional.com/

Find her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-natural-life-business-parternship/

Thanks for listening to Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart. Your subscriptions and reviews are coveted and appreciated!

#lawofattraction #deliberatecreation #liveyourdreams 

Escaping the "Fine" Trap - Lauren Lefkowitz

 

As an executive, is it often easiest just to take on more responsibility and then work the extra hours that others don't see just to get things done? And is "fine" your stock answer when people ask you how you're doing? Lauren Lefkowitz knows the feeling, and she is here to offer another set of options.

When an encounter with a rogue Roomba led to a freak accident, Lauren was forced to stop working long enough to take a good look at her compulsion to take on more responsibility than she had the energy for and make some conscious choices. Learning how to sit on her hands and let other people take on responsibility gave her a new level of freedom in her work. It wasn't a seamless lesson, but she ultimately found positive and doable ways to free herself from the tyranny of saying yes.

As a rare executive coach who has real-life executive experience, Lauren now helps other executives and leaders escape the "Fine" trap and discover new ways to take care of themselves in the midst of being responsible for their businesses and organizations. She shares her wisdom in this episode of Your Own Best Company with Franklin Taggart.

Find Lauren at : https://laurenlefkowitzcoach.com

and on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenlefkowitz/

#executivecoaching #worklifebalance #coaching 

More Creative Marketing - Monique Eckes

 

If you need some creative inspiration for how to reach your customers with valuable and memorable marketing tools, Monique Eckes is back on the Your Own Best Company podcast with some of her latest and greatest ideas. She's also bringing an update on some of the past year's successes and lessons.

Monique is the founder and owner of Silver Paw Studio and has become a well-known pet photographer throughout the Northern Colorado region. She is also an active video maker on YouTube, contributing her endless creative ideas on three channels and across all the other socials.

In this episode:

** Success with her book, NoCo for Doggos, leads to this year's book project that is a celebration of a breed many misunderstand and wrongly categorize - pit bulls.

** Moving to a new studio and the inspiration to offer her workplace as what sociologists call a Third Place - a point of face-to-face connection that isn't home or work.

** The necessity of putting a good idea on hold.

** Staying visible with video.

** Using ChatGPT to create valuable freebies and lead magnets.

Find Monique at https://silverpawstudio.com

https://propetphotog.com

https://www.youtube.com/@ProPetPhotog  

And on all your favorite social channels.

Also mentioned:

Fridgeworthy Freebies - Franklin's course on creating leave behinds that won't get left behind. It's here: https://payhip.com/b/Yt8ja

Thanks for listening and subscribing to Your Own Best Company! 

From Conservation to Copy Conversations - Sheena McInnes

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 episode, we'll hear from someone who is at the beginning of her path. Sheena is learning the ropes of a rapidly changing field, and she's experimenting with everything from finding gigs on LinkedIn, writing for agencies, and trying on the digital nomad lifestyle.

We will be talking about how she discovered copywriting and how it appealed to her. We'll talk about cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset and finding mentors. And we'll talk more about how AI is changing the landscape and how people who learn to integrate it now into their creative work may well be at an advantage over those who don't.

Find Sheena at https://sheenawritescopy.com

and on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheena-mcinnes-copy/

Thanks for listening, subscribing, sharing, and reviewing Your Own Best Company wherever you enjoy podcasts!

#copywriting #freelancing #digitalnomad 

Improve Creative Focus - Jessica Abel

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Time-sensitive announcement: Jessica Abel will be offering the Prioritize Like a Pro workshop live online at 1 pm on June 13. Registration information is here: https://jessicaabel.com/prioritize-like-a-pro/ 

Great, free opportunity to learn about the Weighted Decision Matrix we talked about in the interview!

The evergreen version of the Prioritize Like a Pro workshop is here: https://jessicaabel.com/notionmastery/

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One of my biggest challenges as a creator is having more ideas than I have time to see them through. It's easy to get distracted, and I often get started on projects when they're new and interesting, only to set them aside as other ideas show up. This makes it exceptionally hard to finish things.

I recently attended a workshop presented by Jessica Abel, a creative business coach, artist, author, and teacher, where she introduced a tool she's adapted for creatives called the Weighted Decision Matrix. While I've depended on standard to-do type lists to organize most of my projects, the matrix offers a better way to narrow my selection and choose the right things to work on while letting go of projects that can either wait or not happen at all.

Jessica shares more about the process and tool in this interview, along with insights she's gained as she's built her businesses layer-by-layer.

Creative Engine Masterclass is here: https://jessicaabel.lpages.co/creative-engine-masterclass/

Jessica's latest book, Growing Gills is only on Amazon : https://jessicaabel.com/growing-gills/ 

Out on the Wire and her other books are available via indie booksellers and on Amazon.  https://jessicaabel.com/out-on-the-wire/ 

https://jessicaabel.com/books/ 

and https://amzn.to/43OKnjd (Amazon Associate link)

Thanks for listening, subscribing, and sharing Your Own Best Company with those you know who love working alone.

#decisionmaking #creativeprojects #autonomouscreative 

Sharing Your Gift Through Stories - Lori Robertson

Humans are wired to connect through telling stories. It's been our primary way of communing with each other for thousands of years. Storytelling is so built into the design that we often don't recognize when it's happening or when we're doing it. 

Lori Robertson, the SpeakHer Coach, joins Your Own Best Company today to talk about the power of story as a way to encourage, uplift, inspire, and transform. In her work with professional women, organizational leaders, and emerging influencers, Lori teaches how to bring a crystal clear message to people in unforgettable and valuable ways.

In this interview, Lori shares her story of being put in front of large crowds early in her speaking experience, how she rose to leadership in an organization that sponsored over 30 large-audience live events every year, and how she now works with her clients to own their message and share their gift-laden stories on stages of all sizes.

You may find Lori at ⁠https://SpeakHerCoach.com⁠

and on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/loridrobertson/⁠

Thanks as always for listening, subscribing, and sharing Your Own Best Company - a podcast for people who love to work alone.

#publicspeaking #speaking #storytelling 

Mental Health Connections - Kim Pratt

 

Depression, anxiety, and other mental health concerns are common experiences for many solopreneurs, freelancers, and self-employed. Kim Pratt from the Alliance for Suicide Prevention of Larimer County is the guest on this episode of Your Own Best Company. 
Kim shares early warning signs, symptoms, and support resources if you are concerned about your mental health. Her go-to suggestion is to program the number 988 into your phone. This national crisis hotline offers support and services 24/7/365 in the US and is free to call.
She also shares insight into how to find the right kind of help and offers both local and national resources for help. In the meantime, stay connected to your family, friends, and peers, and be honest with yourself and with them if you're having a difficult time.More information: ⁠https://www.suicideprevent.org⁠
#mentalhealth #suicideprevention #depression 

Franklin on Uncle Marv's IT Business Podcast!

Thanks to Marvin Bee for the invitation to share my story of turning a question and answer session with ChatGPT into a published Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) book on Uncle Marv's I.T. Business Podcast! This was a fun conversation, and I'll be looking forward to welcoming Marvin to Your Own Best Company sometime soon. 

We talked about concerns and opportunities that tools like ChatGPT and other technology are presenting as they become more widely used. I recall some of my music career experiences in which tech advances changed everything about the music business in a relatively short period of time. And we talked about my initial surprise at the thorough way my questions were responded to. 

You can hear the whole episode here: 

Marvin has some other great episodes to check out here, especially if you are interested in more tech-centered conversations. And he's got an Amazon link to the book: https://itbusinesspodcast.simplecast....