Franklin Taggart's Blog: Franklin Taggart's Blog

I've been experimenting with several of the latest AI platforms. Canva's most recent AI updates have introduced some fun possibilities. 

I make a lot of checklists, worksheets, workbooks, and interactive PDFs that can be tedious and time-consuming to design and make. I've been learning how to use Canva's AI to generate the basic PDFs for me and then I take them to Adobe Acrobat Pro to make them fillable and saveable. I'm hoping Canva will be able to add fillable PDFs to it's output options soon.

In the latest New Tricks video, I share how I made a quick social media survey form in less than 15 minutes. Watch it here:

Before you read the article, please take a minute and use this handy affiliate link to open the information and enrollment page for the Freelance After 50 Summit. If you are at any stage of freelancing, from just thinking about it to having years of freelance experience, there will be something of exceptional value for you to find in this event. At a minimum, you'll be introduced to the resources and community offered by the fantastic folks at Freelance University. You can attend for free, or you can spring for the bonus features included in the advanced tier. You'll be able to determine your schedule ahead of time and choose those presentations that are of particular interest to you. 

There is so much change going on in the job market right now. Layoffs in many industries and in government are pushing people into the employment scramble, and many are wondering if they'll ever be able to find secure employment again. While hiring discrimination based on age is illegal, HR biases against hiring older workers are still widely reported, and recruiting practices tend to favor younger candidates. 
If you are a worker approaching or past fifty, I'd like to suggest at least doing a bit of research in the area of freelance careers. I've been a freelancer in some shape or form since the last half of the twentieth century. Even during the times I had full-time employment, I was still engaged in what has since become known as the side hustle, offering my skills to paying clients as a freelance contractor. When I left my last full-time job in 1997, I carved out a career path that has allowed me the flexibility and freedom I've needed to pursue some creative dreams. When I was faced with health challenges and other extreme situations, freelancing allowed me to continue to work in meaningful ways and contribute to supporting my family while finding the time I needed to take care of the more pressing personal needs I had.
Some people imagine that freelancing is reserved just for creative people - artists, writers, designers, illustrators - but I'm of the idea that the word freelancer applies to anyone who is offering their knowledge and skill as an independent contractor. Coaches, consultants, mentors, private instructors, and experts in almost every field can start a freelance business. This can be an especially lucrative opportunity for people who have many years of experience in their field. 
My freelance experience includes music performance, teaching music lessons, voiceover, video and audio production, business and marketing consulting, personal coaching, and several other areas of interest. I've helped other freelancers start successful businesses in areas like writing, speaking, coaching, graphic design, and videography, to name just a few. I enjoy the flexibility and freedom that comes with the freelance lifestyle. I can work at my own pace, in my own time, and I can be as selective as I want to be about the people I work for and the things I do for them. 
Yes, there have been many challenges, especially in the area of health. One of the important benefits of freelancing in my life has been the ability to work with drastic changes in physical energy and stamina. I've been able to establish a schedule and routine that takes my ongoing need for rest and rejuvenation into consideration. Another challenge has been the somewhat constant need to be marketing my services. Creating an effective marketing system has been essential. Another challenge has been in the area of planning and working with fluctuations in cash flow. Being a freelancer hasn't always been an easy path, but it has still been a more viable way for me to work than the rigid demands of 9-5 employment. 
I had the pleasure of talking with Craig Cannings, the founder of Freelance University and the catalyst behind the Freelance After 50 Summit. We talked about both of our experiences in the world of freelance work, and he shared some of the incredible resources on offer from Freelance University. FreelanceU is a platform that every freelance worker needs to know about. I'd like you to hear what Craig has to say in the interview. I'm a huge fan. 

Finally, if you are even remotely thinking about shifting to a freelance career path, don't hesitate to enroll in the Freelance After 50 Summit happening next week, April 15-17. This online event will feature 15 speakers, including me, who will be covering all the questions you might have about freelance work and business. There will also be panel discussions with speakers each day, and you'll hear from some of the FreelanceU students about their paths to freelance success. 
Again, don't hesitate to use this affiliate link to enroll now, and I will see you at the summit. 

▼▼▼ Watch the video below ▼▼▼

It Started With the Question, "Is This Really How I Want to Spend My Time?"

I joined Facebook and Twitter in 2009, at the height of a personal health crisis. They were both much different experiences then. I was friends with people I wanted to connect with and hear from, and when we posted, our friends did see it. It was fun to get reacquainted with people all the way back to elementary school. And it was an important place to connect while I was facing a lot of uncertainty in my life. Overall, it felt like a pretty positive and uplifting place to be - until election time. The first couple of elections we went through on social media revealed some pretty horrible things about pretty much all of us.

In order to stay in that environment, I had to start filtering what I was seeing. Longtime friends were unfollowed, unfriended, and blocked because I felt directly attacked by their vitriol. I started to realize that if they knew how I really felt, I wouldn't just be a former friend. They would now view me as a political enemy - and ultimately, that put me at risk of their violence and abuse. In order to make social media a safe enough space to participate, I had to hide them - and hide myself from them.

That is no longer enough. Neither X or Facebook has been a particularly enriching place to be for a long time. On Facebook, for every post from a friend that I see, I am fed a stream of tabloid-style "content" - a word that I have grown to hate - that I have zero control over and that I have no desire to see. The same articles show up repeatedly for days at a time. My life stopped being enhanced by my time there years ago. Why has it taken so long to cut the cord? Maybe I was just hopeful it could get better again.

Leaving Abusive Relationships Isn't Easy

I left X shortly after Elon Musk made the purchase. He guaranteed that he wanted it to be the flaming hellhole it became. His own posts ensured that people would react in an inflammatory way. I knew immediately that I had no more use for it. It had stopped being a positive place for me in any personal way, and there was no business benefit to staying there either.

The latest announcement by Mark Zuckerberg sealed the fate of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp for me. Does he want it to become another wasteland? Neither he nor Musk want to have any responsibility for the veracity or truth of what people post. They're inviting foreign governments to misinform and disinform while pointing the finger at TikTok for being a bad player. They have no investment in the quality of our experience there, and they have signaled that they really don't care. 

For centuries, tabloids have known that misinformation sells really well. Social media magnates have bought into the same idea. The more sensational and the higher the dopamine hit, the more money they make. Keeping us scrolling feeds the coffers. Spectacle keeps us hooked. Inflammatory speech and lies just keep us all watching the growing train wreck. Our adrenaline is triggered and spent. It is no longer a life-enriching or life-enhancing experience. It's reality TV on steroids. I don't want to feed the beast anymore.

The Other Elephants in the Room

I'll be addressing my Amazon dependency in the months to come. Jeff Bezos has shown himself to be as cynical and unconcerned for the welfare of the people who work for him and buy his stuff. The convenience of Kindle and Audible have made them central companions in my days, and I don't want to start filling my house with actual books again. And it's sad that the integrity of a paper like the Washington Post died with Ben Bradlee and Katherine Graham. 

Of all the tech dependencies I have to sort out, Google is the hardest. I use so many Google-owned apps for my life and business that it will probably take a year to unravel. I'm well aware that they stopped following their own rule of "Don't be evil" quite a while ago, but I was already too deep. I also feel a greater sense of control and less invasiveness with the apps I use. YouTube still allows me to control much of what I see there. Paying not to see ads makes it much more bearable.

For now, I've removed my business pages from Facebook. I won't post to my personal profiles on Facebook and Instagram while I remove the photos and videos I want to keep. Once I have those backed up, I'll delete those accounts and WhatsApp, which I've used the least of all. I've already deleted my account on Threads, which I barely used. My plan is to minimize my digital footprint and make it as meaningful as possible.

What Am I Going To Do Now?

I have a BlueSky account, but I'm not sure how much I will use it. That format of posting isn't very interesting to me, and I don't trust social media platforms to stay true to their users as long as profit remains their top goal. I follow a few people on Substack but don't start waving their willingness to let neo-nazis post newsletters there in front of my face. Try to find anywhere to go where vermin aren't allowed. I like Substack because it only shows me the authors I've chosen to see. I also like the longer form writing that I see there. I follow fewer people, but the level of depth of their writing is excellent.

I will still post to my YouTube channels and this blog, and I will also post my podcast in all the usual places. Although I hate what Spotify has done to the music industry, that has been an inevitable outcome since the first mp3s were uploaded. For the time being, they will still distribute my podcasts. I have a Pinterest account that I enjoy for personal use, and I will be one of the 170 million who will miss TikTok when it's gone. 

I also plan to read more books, schedule more real conversations, and write letters to people. Some of my favorite books have been collections of letters exchanged by people who knew how to communicate their inner worlds in impeccable ways. That sounds more fun to me.

What About Business and Visibility?

We've been duped into believing that social media, email, and digital advertising are the only ways to reach potential customers and form and maintain relationships with them. At one time, they offered simple and inexpensive ways to reach large numbers of people. That's not so much the case anymore. Add AI to the mix, and the volume and mediocrity of what we send each other leaves a lot to be desired. I can still attend networking meetings, hand out business cards and meaningful freebies, and do talks and presentations. I can still invite people to meet over coffee, food, or beverages. My business will be just fine. 

I trust that if you really need to find me, you will. I won't be missed in the socials. I wasn't all that active there, to begin with. I'll be more selective as to who I choose to check up on. I won't have to know everything about everyone, and that will be a relief. Those of you who have my email are invited to use it. Those who don't can use the convenient contact form below. Want to chat? My calendar link is on the contact form. 

I know that one person out of four billion users won't make a dent in the social media industrial complex, but I will at least have the peace of mind that comes with removing myself from the stream. Letting go of these distractions will be good for my mental health. I won't have the chemical cocktail of dopamine, serotonin, adrenaline, and cortisol surging through my bloodstream several times a day, and I expect to feel much, much better. 

I'll see you around.

 

I've known that I am an introvert from the first time I heard the meaning of the word. 

Not to be confused with shyness or timidity, my introversion is more about conserving energy and being able to prevent myself from going into a state of sensory overload or overwhelm. Being in noisy and crowded spaces has always been a challenge. I talked about this quite a bit in my podcast, Your Own Best Company. 

Upon hearing these things, some friends of mine suggested that I might qualify as a Highly Sensitive Person in addition to being an introvert. They referred me to the book The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine N. Aron. I had heard the term HSP in self-help circles but had never looked into it in any detail. 

There were definitely some parallels in the book that related to my experience:

Gravitating to uncrowded spaces where solitude could be found.Finding ways to regulate the stimulation in my environment and my nervous system responses to it.Finding places in the room where movement was slower, and my back could be against a wall. 

In the reading I had been doing, no one had proposed that Highly Sensitive People might have a related experience with money. That's what intrigued me about the title of Diana Yañez new podcast, Highly Sensitive Money. Diana and I met a couple of years ago after she heard my interview with Quiet Marketing author Danielle Gardner. We've enjoyed a couple of conversations sharing her stories of her digital nomad experience and her first steps in her money coaching business, All The Colors.
When Diana asked me to be her guest, I was quick to agree. We decided to talk about the spiritual side of entrepreneurship. I found I had a lot to say on the topic, and it ties in nicely with the HSP propensity to be attracted to spiritual practices and experiences. This is a meandering conversation that you may not finish in one sitting, but you can navigate your way through with the chapter headings on the YouTube video or using the timestamps below.
I want to thank Diana for the opportunity to chat again and to share these stories with her followers. I would encourage you to subscribe wherever you watch or listen to podcasts. You can find her main podcast page here: https://highlysensitivemoney.podbean.com/. You may also watch the video right here:

Key moments in this episode are:00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:15 Discovering Franklin Taggart
00:56 The Digital Nomad Experience
01:33 Balancing Sensitivity and Business
04:25 Spirituality in Entrepreneurship
07:50 Franklin's Journey in Music
12:25 Health Challenges and Career Shift
36:12 Balancing Multiple Income Streams
38:28 Gradual Transition Strategies
39:24 The Power of Passive Income
41:36 Building Client Relationships
44:49 Navigating Burnout and Change
53:59 Overcoming Financial Stigma
01:00:37 Understanding Business Cycles
01:03:02 Final Thoughts and Resources

 

It's been easy to talk about the worst parts of the tech explosion, artificial intelligence, and social media experience. It's noisy, confusing, often unpleasant, and complicated. It's not easy to navigate. Algorithms think they know what you want, but they keep showing you stuff that you wouldn't choose for yourself if you had time to decide anything. 

I was on YouTube this morning, looking at the hundreds of videos that were being promoted on my feed. The thumbnails all look the same so as to seem generic. While the once popular promise that the internet and social media were going to offer endless possibilities to be uniquely yourself, the movement seems to be more toward homogeneity. I don't have a lot of time to watch, but I need a better way to choose than endless scrolling and filtering.

I've grown more weary of the online world, and I often wonder how useful it really is. There was a gracefulness about the card catalog at the library that made the experience of research and learning feel more sophisticated and important. The overwhelming amount of uncurated information we have to sort through now as we search with Google creates a yearning for severe limitations on how much information we see at one time. I've started to question if I've formed valuable and important relationships online. The bulk of them are superficial at best, and the quality of the discussion disappoints. 

In the midst of all this, I was somehow fortunate enough to be found through the noise by a guy named Pete Pachal. Pete is a journalist with a special focus on tech who has been involved in reporting on industry events and trends for a couple of decades. I'm not sure which podcast where he heard me talking about my concerns about AI, but he heard something there that inspired him to reach out and ask for a conversation. His first request seemed like spam, but I recognized his name from some of my past following of the tech stream on Mashable, where he was the Tech Editor. 

I sent a terse message asking if he just had something to sell or if he really wanted to have a conversation. He assured me that the conversation was his primary request, and yes, he did have something more to offer. I sent the scheduling link, and here is the conversation:

I've hosted a lot of podcast interviews. This one is among my favorites. I appreciate the thought and the quality that Pete brings to his responses. I appreciate his point of view, especially since he's got an intimate understanding of the longer view of tech and the direction it's taking us. And he's not holding back from telling us that our concerns have validity and that there is a bigger picture that we can't see yet. 
Here are some of the topics we cover:Pete’s Abridged History of AI What Changed When Large Language Models Entered the Room? Some of Pete’s Favorite AI Tools Navigating the Tsunami of Crap How is Search and SEO Changing? Where Can Tech Novices Start With AI? Is There Any Good News About AI for Creatives?In the midst of all the AI news, Pete has created a resource for people in the media industry and beyond to help you understand and integrate the new tools that AI makes possible. The Media Copilot is a newsletter, podcast, and YouTube channel that offers up-to-date news, insight, and navigation suggestions to media professionals at every level. Here are the details:
Important links for The Media Copilot
Media Copilot newsletter: https://mediacopilot.substack.com/Training classes: https://learn.mediacopilot.ai/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@themediacopilotMedia Copilot on social:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-copilot/Twitter: https://x.com/themediacopilotInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/themediacopilot/If you like what you hear, please subscribe. Thanks!

 

My experience on YouTube has been a cool adventure for the most part. In the midst of spam comments, thumbnails and titles that are intended to coerce, and the noise you sift through to find what you want, miracles can happen. One of those miracles took the form of meeting Matthew Gray of the 50 Tastes of Gray Podcast. 

A few years ago, I made a ten-minute video with no advance planning or intention that has become the most popular video on my page. It's about making a graphic overlay for Zoom interviews. That accidental success was the first point of contact. 

In the past couple of years, Matthew has reached out to touch base and see how I've been doing. Most YouTube-inspired exchanges are not this thoughtful, but in one of his latest check-ins, he asked if I'd join him on his podcast. I'd made an assumption that the podcast was mostly about food, but that was before I'd properly listened to a few episodes. Matthew just loves good conversations, and he's a master in the interview chair. And yes, food is always a part of the conversation, but wait - there's more!

We cover a lot of ground, from my collection of mood glasses to Monica's cooking to her tour of Italy coming up next year to Cincinnati chili to coaching to his time on the road with rock stars of the seventies. We could have easily made six podcasts from all that we covered. One of the things I love most about podcasting is that every interview has a life and purpose of its own. There is a unique spirit that forms in the space between host and guest, and you get to know each a little differently based on the two as they are together rather than as distinct individuals. This interview is unlike any other I've ever been a part of.

So, some of the stories may be familiar, but the telling is brand new. You can find the episode on Matthew's website here: https://lovelife.com/audio-version-chef-matthew-vs-coach-franklin-taggart/

I'll embed the video here, but I encourage you to visit his YouTube channel and subscribe. The show is also available on the major podcast listening platforms if you'd rather listen there. 

Big thanks to Matthew for reaching out and inviting this introvert into a safe place to tell stories!

You can watch on YouTube, too! https://youtu.be/yh4Uv_Dywqw?si=WscqwPQ1OX6EcuAU

The episode can be heard below. You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to the shows you love. Here are some important links related to the program:

The Mindful Evolution Podcast site. 

Leah's YouTube Channel.

Leah's website.

Leah on Instagram.

One of the highlights of attending last Summer's Podcast Movement conference in Denver was the random meeting in a discussion on blogging with a new podcaster named Leah Drew. I don't remember the specific content of our conversation, but I remember the instant feeling of connection with a kindred spirit. In the few times we've spoken since the conference, that sense has only been reinforced.

Leah was preparing to launch her podcast called The Mindful Evolution Podcast to share her own insights and those of her guests relating to soulful, holistic healing. In passing, we talked about how my own path in the past few years had been about coming face to face with my own shadow self, that side of me that I have wanted to hide from everyone, including me. She asked if I would be willing to share that part of my experience on her podcast. While it's not easy to admit these things, I agreed to the interview.

Leah creates a welcoming and safe space in her interviews for sharing to go where it needs to go. I don't often get a chance to talk about how much my spiritual path has been centered on work and business. I've talked in a few settings about my religious past, and some of the personal insights and openings I've had, but I rarely talk about the spiritual practice and significance of entrepreneurship and vocation. 

Leah opened the door for these topics to come front and center. I appreciate her willingness to take the conversation to these places. To be honest, I had forgotten much of the content of our interview in the time since we recorded it. It was a pleasure to revisit these months later.

I hope you'll enjoy what you hear. Also, remember that subscribing, reviewing, sharing, and interacting are all wonderful things to exchange for the energy and effort that Leah has infused into this show. 

Since the public launch of ChatGPT 3 in late 2022, the rapid introduction of artificial intelligence into the mainstream of every aspect of human living has been a central topic of conversation and concern. AI tools have spread across the creative industries like wildfire and have been inserted into every level of task from ideation to packaging. Where we had hoped the robots would take over the mundane tasks of life, instead, we've seen the technology pointed at the big red target on the face of all our creative activities. 

While the tech gods have tried to assure us that human labor won't be replaced overnight, we've still seen early signs that the trend will be toward computers and machines doing the work humans once did. This isn't an abnormal pattern. From the earliest development of tools, the whole point has been for human labor to become easier and ultimately redundant. But can we be prepared for how the race will be affected as tech takes over increasingly highly skilled tasks?

Before I go any further, I must clarify that I am not anti-tech or anti-AI. I use the tools daily, and I'd be stupid not to. Some of the time required for my creative tasks has been cut by huge percentages. The search for relevant images for presentations that used to take hours has been reduced to minutes with the help of Dall-E and some well-defined prompts. I've been a Grammarly user for a few years now, and I've definitely seen an improvement in my writing as a result. Design tools for graphics, audio, and video have all helped streamline my own DIY production processes. So please don't think I'm against any of this.

That said, I have a few genuine concerns about the impact of AI in a few specific areas, represented by the following questions:

What will be the impact of AI on creative work and its market value?What will happen to artistic and creative professions?How will we guard against social isolation as we hand the bulk of our communication over to bots?In my coaching of creative freelancers, I've already seen some early impacts on clients who have been laid off from jobs as AI tools have been introduced or seen regular contracts not be renewed. I keep hearing about large content creation and marketing businesses cutting their creative teams down from hundreds to a few with the full complement of AI support. These include website design businesses, social media marketing and management contractors, and professional photo and video editors. The market demand for their services doesn't appear to be enough to make their freelance businesses sustainable. 


Unlike the transition in the early industrial revolution, new industries aren't springing up in need of their labor. By the time they finish training in new areas of skill, will those paths also be dominated by AI? For an industry with a lot of uncertainty built into it, this level of unpredictability may be the last straw for many. Will these professions go the way of the blacksmith and become nostalgic novelties that will be seen only in historical tributes? Will the next wave of national parks be the workplaces of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries?
The last question about social isolation is the most troubling to me. We've already seen the impact of technology and social media on the quality of our communication with each other. Our ability to connect on significant emotional levels and to communicate with any depth is being lost to a sea of short messages consisting mostly of emojis. And now we're going to have AI composing, sending, and receiving these messages? Are we trying to create a world in which we never actually have to talk to each other? I'm sure some would see that as a positive development.
I already bristle at the automatic response prompts that are offered in my email replies and text messages. How long before we don't even have to open a message to have a conversation with someone? My email inbox is already filled with messages whose only non-automated feature is their composition. And now even that seems to be on the block. My question really is about the reality and authenticity of human connections. Are these tools really allowing us to improve the quality of our connections, or are they removing us from the social fabric altogether?
I'm not looking for immediate answers to these questions. I don't think there are any. At least simple answers. Humans tend to avoid preparing for disasters until they've already occurred. I have been working with my clients to integrate AI tools into their practices as they find them helpful. Again, I appreciate the bump in productivity. But I'm also encouraging them never to stop exercising their creative and connective muscles, even though they may not be in as much demand. These qualities of being human, creativity, and communication have an intrinsic value apart from their marketability. They are central to the quality of our lives, and I'm not ready to let mine go.

 

When I retired from performing in 2022, I wasn't sure how music was going to show up in my life. For a couple of months, I didn't pick up the guitar - the longest stretch without playing since I got my first guitar. Even during the years I struggled with tendinitis, I would still pick it up and play until the pain stopped me. In the months since I stopped performing, I've regained my love and appreciation just for the time I get to pick up my guitar and play. That is the essence of this interview.
My long-time friend Margo set up this interview with Jake Douglass. His mission is exciting. It's driven by the desire to turn people on to the joy of playing music for music's sake. We cover every aspect of the role of music in my life, from my first piano lessons to my last gig and beyond. It was fun and at moments, touching, to remember specific moments when a random encounter started a new trajectory of my journey.
Please listen, and if you enjoy what you hear, give the show some love by giving a thumbs up, subscribing, and sharing.

 

Have you noticed a slowdown in your business in the last year? 

You're not alone. A client I was talking with yesterday asked an increasingly common question, "Is it always this hard to find new business?"

She opened her consulting business early in 2023 after being laid off from her job in the post-COVID months. She landed a major contract within a month of opening that kept her in the black for most of the year, but that contract isn't being renewed, and now she needs to find new clients ASAP. 

She's not the first one to come to me with questions like this in recent months. Costs are increasing, interest rates are rising, wages are not keeping pace, and belts are tightening. When spending slows down, most businesses are impacted at some level. 

These downturns can be scary times, especially for new business owners who haven't experienced them before. Consistent, steady growth isn't a pattern we see in the normal nature of things. Sustainable businesses aren't that way because their circumstances are always the same. Their sustainability is more often related to their ability to adapt as circumstances change. 

Like the person I spoke with yesterday, many businesses haven't been around long enough to have built responsive systems to keep themselves afloat during the off-season. They're now learning about cash flow patterns, market rhythms, supply chains, demand fluctuations, and how to account for these things in their planning. Until these systems are in place, these folks have to shift gears into rapid response marketing mode, and waiting passively for the SEO to kick in and people to find your now outdated website just won't do.

Two other parts of yesterday's conversation stand out in my mind. First, my client had the good fortune to have a hallmark contract fall into her lap without effort at the beginning of her business. That created an expectation that finding business would be easy for her. She's now seeing that it was a misconception. The second factor is that she is having difficulty thinking creatively because of her stress about the urgency of her situation.

The three suggestions I am making here are activities I've found helpful in alleviating my own stress during uncertain times and that reawaken the creative muscles I need to start seeing new ideas and opportunities. I'll also share in this written description an unspoken fourth activity that is facilitated by the others.

The three activities in the video are:Making ListsDeep ResearchMaking Offers

The fourth I'll mention here is to simply connect with people. The lists and research will fill up with people to reach out to. The next level of work is the actual reaching.
For list making, I like to use spreadsheets like the one you can copy or download here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aIh_6IboSG5Ram7swpi4IIGegYm99NcLqo6VPfEcmlQ/edit?usp=sharing
You'll see six different tabs on the bottom of the page. Each is a separate list. You can add or change them as you wish. These are the ones I like to use. My goal with listing is to spark ideas and insights. If the ideas and insights don't come, I'm probably listing the wrong things. When I start to imagine new products, services, connections, opportunities, or other possibilities, my listing is doing what I need.
In addition to the lists you see on the spreadsheet, I keep a running list of hot topics in my Notion journal. These are dated and stored in chronological order. Each item on this list is a topic that has arisen in a client conversation. I look for trends here and use these topics as starting places for deep research. 
In the past year, the hottest topic for most of my clients has been the impact of AI on their creative careers. Some have been displaced already, while others are finding creative ways to adapt. So, as my schedule has opened and I've needed to stimulate new opportunities, my research has been focused on spotting ways to support my coaching clients as they face a rapidly changing marketplace for their services. As their coach, I need to be prepared to help them get past the panic and start to think and act differently in response to the times.
In the video, I share a couple of Google tools I use to guide my research and to help sort through information that may be out of date or irrelevant. I suggest to my clients that knowing how to get the most out of search tools is one of the most necessary and marketable skills of our time. AI is definitely enhancing that, as well.
The last suggestion I make is to either dust off an old offer or put together a new one to usher out into the marketplace. Is there a new product, service, event, or experience you can put in front of existing and potential customers? It can be any price or package, but it needs to be seen. 
I've been working on a new series of video production resources for coaches that I'll be rolling out in the next month. I am hopeful these resources will stimulate many months and possibly years of opportunity for me. Stay tuned for the announcement of their availability. And go ahead and put together an offer of your own and get it in front of your people.
These four things are at the heart of my strategy when business slows. I hope you'll find them as helpful as I do. If you haven't taken advantage of my free Best Next Step coaching session, you can schedule your one-hour, no-strings-attached call here: https://bit.ly/best-next-step
#slowbusiness #businesscycles #businessadvice
Video Chapters:

00:00:00

00:00:05 She panicked when her first contract ended

00:00:52 Recharge, rejuvenate, or wallow?

00:01:23 Three things to do When Business Slows Down

00:01:39 Making Lists

00:02:00 Sis Lists on One Google Sheet

00:02:11 Mentors and Advisors List

00:02:45 Former Clients List

00:03:28 Dream Clients List

00:04:30 Industry Trends List

00:05:16 Resource List

00:05:36 Ideas and Opportunities List

00:06:07 Deepening Your Research

00:07:59 A few Favorite Google Features

00:10:24 The Secret List – Hot Topics

00:10:34 Dust Off an Old Offer, Or Design a New One

00:11:31 How to Know if Your Lists, Research, and Offers areWorking

00:12:09 Schedule a Best Next Step Session with Franklin