Like most weeks it’s been the best of times.
It’s been the “not best” of times:)

We kicked off the week with my first police stop in Portugal.

I was so confused why I was LITERALLY being chased down a traffic-infested highway that I SPED UP. I thought “Oh I’m in his way” not realizing that I WAS HIS TARGET. 🫠

And don’t get me started when he asked me for documents to which I said, “Huh?”

After I was told I could pay him off in cash (like whhhaaaaaaa) but not BEFORE he said he could take me to jail for having NOTHING on me, we all calmed down and ended with me complimenting his English and me swearing to increase my Portuguese lessons.

250 Euros later (more than my direct cash option but not en route to a Lisbon jail)… I was on my way and feeling grateful. It’s all mindset right.🥴🥴

Apparently this is the law I broke. “BUT we’re NOT in Brazil” was not something I felt confident would sway him so I just said “Thank you. I will not hold my phone in my hand again.” (which is literally what I was doing…not even talking on the phone.)

However this week has provided some highs as well and I hope this high benefits YOU.

Raj Kera reached out to me earlier this year after seeing my LinkedIn posts and having them really resonate with him.

Reminder: You never know which narrative will create the next important connection or opportunity for yourself so PLEASE JUST SHIP YOUR WORK and don’t overthink it.

Raj is one of the top 10 ranked SEO coaches in the USA and the past CEO of several B2B SaaS companies, which he grew using (wait for it…..) SEO and sold to public firms.

He’s now launching another venture and part of his launch strategy is a B2B focused podcast. He wondered if I could come on and chat how corporate leaders can become better storytellers even if they HATE the idea of it.

I said “hell yes!” as if there is a sector that desperately needs storytelling chops (especially as they feel pressure to ramp up AI)…it’s the C-suite and leadership teams.

After we recorded, he then later told me that his whole team loved our episode so much, they decided to bump it up to the inaugural launch spot.

And because he’s a GENIUS SEO person, he has this unreal “SEO friendly” article from our podcast. ***note to self for My StoryPro content strategy…..

Without giving away all the good stuff (because I really want you to listen or even watch how much worse my production quality is than his!!!), here’s what got Raj so fired up:

​The power of starting your story in the middle of the action.

Like that cybersecurity CEO who ditched boring industry stats and opened with: “I got a text at 2 AM. All your bank accounts have been hacked…”

One story.
He built his entire brand around that single moment.

We talk about that and how you can apply it to your work.

And then there’s the Chicago executive who was absolutely crushing every performance metric but walked into a major bank meeting and heard:

“Wait… who are you?”

Performance without story = invisibility.

We talked about that and what we did about it (ie) it was not posting ALL THE TIME.

As we’re moving deeper into an AI world where anyone can generate facts and data in seconds, your authentic stories are becoming the ultimate differentiator.

Even more so than they already were.

Your lived experiences can’t be replicated by technology.. (at least not yet)

​Look, I could keep going about all the insights from the podcast but I’d rather you hear it straight from the source.

This one is particularly interesting for me as I don’t tend to do a lot in the B2B space, but it just shows you that with Raj being so entrenched in the B2B space, he is seeing a real desire and a shift towards strengthening executive teams with powerful storytelling skills.

​Speaking of which – this conversation with Raj got me thinking about next week.

I’m preparing to teach a storytelling class for Justin Welsh’s private Substack community.

***EEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK.. Remember that unhinged London trip I made to meet him at a happy hour. Well, he asked me to teach to his people and I am equal parts vomit excited and vomit “I DON’T WANNA DO THIS” . My brain is having a full on rave right now.

I’ll be talking about storytelling and AI to a room full of corporate people who are looking to make the leap to solopreneurship or who have already made that leap.

The workshop before me was run by the founder of Kit, which is coincidentally the platform that is sending you this email… a $50M business and whose presentation looked like it could’ve come out of the best film school in the country.

So that’s fun for me to follow.

I may not have a $50M dollar business or know how to run a flywheel …yet… I do know this.

When people like Raj are telling me how desperate corporate leaders are for storytelling skills, it shows me I’m in exactly the right lane.

Storytelling and using AI in a really human way? That’s my thing so I will just focus on THAT and not get distracted by who else is in Justin’s group.

Wish me luck. I’ll report back next week and hopefully it will be put in my HIGH category and not the LOW category.

​And enjoy the podcast with me and Raj. It’s a bit on the long side, so go get yourself stuck in some traffic…just don’t run away from a cop if he’s chasing you!

As always, if you’re needing some help with your own stories, My StoryPro is a great way to start.

Received these back-to-back DMs from Shannen and this is WHY I continue to talk about this tool ad nauseum.

Trial It!

I hope you have something passionate in your life that you also want to talk about ad nauseum. You’re here on this planet to annoy the crap out of people with your amazing ideas.

Never forget that.
Have a great weekend!

XO,
Patrice