I’m writing this from a pub in the Cotswold’s, a week into being more or less offline. And thankfully have not run into JD Vance who somehow managed to discover one of our favorite British spots as his new holiday hang…🥴

The locals are literally protesting him (war criminal signs abound) and pub staff are refusing to come to work if places accept his reservations.

I’ve never been more proud of British passive-aggression to remind me that groups of “everyday people” still hold tremendous power for holding untethered, dangerous power in check.

Spoiler alert: he did not end up eating in the most popular pub in town. 💅

We’ve been in England for the month of August seeing family (my husband’s family lives here), friends and making a Scottish pilgrimage to see Oasis and I am that cliche fan that knows 3 songs BUT can definitely say “IT WAS A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE.”

Side note, I have NEVER in all of my existence on this Earth been around so much man positivity. It was the ERAS tour but Taylor Swift is Liam and Noel Gallagher.

Groups of happy, laughing, dancing, dressed-up-in outfits men congregating all over Edinburgh and I now know the antidote to toxic masculinity…. It’s Oasis.

Oh and it was Fringe Festival weekend as well which is all about comedy, dance, song and self expression.

Scotland was a LOVE FEST mixed with a side of our favorite Scotsman, John Paul, who came to meet us for a pub lunch one afternoon with his LOVER DOGS.

Going to see live shows in any capacity is MY antidote to feeling like the world is choked full of criminals masquerading as democratic leaders.

When you are in the nerve center of 80,000 people smiling, dancing, laughing, singing, I am reminded that the world is full of way more good humans than the news would have us believe.

That connection is still possible despite differences and that joy isn’t dead – it’s just harder to find when you’re staring at screens all day and unleashing your thoughts via Instagram common threads.
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​Which brings me to my next thought…​
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You know how I always say that better stories come from actually living your life? And that the best content strategies aren’t from a perfectly prompted AI calendar but learning how to talk about your moment and experiences that will relate back to your audience.

Well, I’ve been doing exactly that this month… but this also has exposed holes in my business.

I’m running two businesses now – storytelling coaching and scaling my AI tool, My StoryPro. ​

But when I disappear, revenue slows down.

Because too much of what I do requires me to personally sell it.

And that’s not a sustainable growth strategy.

The success we’ve/I’ve had up until this point has been built off of the personal brand equity I’ve established over the last decade.

But that’s not the same as being a master at building systems that sell without me.

Scaling a product? That requires one-to-many marketing.

Systems that convert people who’ve never heard of Patrice Poltzer.

So I asked My StoryPro marketing head Liesl to hold me accountable.

Not just to the storytelling work I love, but to the marketing work that actually moves a product forward.

The unglamorous stuff like conversion funnels, user onboarding, strategic content aligned with a customer journey map and retention metrics that I’ve been avoiding because… well, because I’d rather be coaching someone through their founder story or inspiring someone to take a risk in life than optimizing email sequences or creating based off a customer journey map.

But something has to give if I want to go “off the grid” and not have revenue suffer.

So I’m going to start documenting it.

Not here, because I know many of you are here purely for the storytelling coaching and for inspiration….

But in a separate space where I can share what it’s really like to build a tech product in the AI space while trying to keep it authentically human and ethical.

And yeah, being female in a very not-female-dominated space.

For those of you here for the storytelling and the behind-the-scenes looks at my personal life and work, nothing changes.

But if you’re building tech or an AI tool yourself and want to see behind the curtain of what it’s really like?

If you’re wanting to see the more tech side of what I also now do…I’ll be working on starting a separate Substack in the next few weeks.

**note there is NOTHING here yet, but next month I will be rolling out this content. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST😭

Because living life gives you stories. But building something that scales beyond you?
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That’s a whole different adventure and like all of us, we need to evolve into different roles as our business (and life) changes.

Stay tuned for my upcoming Substack and I hope you will also follow along there as well!

I hope you are all having an amazing summer.

I’m off to Norfolk next -rumor says it’s magic. My husband is lobbying hard for a week on a riverboat. Pray for me.

XO,
Patrice

P.S I need to share this amazing testimonial I got yesterday from Pam. This sums up our tool so well…have you tried out tool yet? You get 7 days free. ​