I’m back in Lisbon recovering from culture shock Orlando, FL style. (SO MANY BEEF JERKY OPTIONS WOW). ​
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I am still not over my addict-like behavior at CVS but I’ll spare you all the details (#youarewelcome).

I was there for an entrepreneur award I won and stayed a few extra days to hang with my mom in Epcot (she flew down from Chicago.)

And yes, we were those weird people at Disney without any children.
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Let us live people.
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And let us drink round the world.

So back to the award’s weekend.
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It was overwhelming. (250 women many of whom I admire online and were now IRL and in case you were wondering I have zero chill)

It was unbelievable (you think you’re in a silo until you hear your fellow entrepreneurs talking about their struggles…yes even the ones who I fangirl over)
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It was inspiring (a favorite hang and panel speaker was a women who came from abject poverty to sell her business for 8 figures last year at 34)​
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It was motivating (being in a room with so many self-made female multi millionaires makes me be like ‘LEVEL IT UP PATRICE’)
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It was a reminder that I need to incorporate more color into my wardrobe (see photo below)

The weekend was jam packed with speakers, breakout panels and networking.
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I got to meet my business crush -Jessica Zweig- for the first time IRL and spend 1:1 time with her.

And two people recognized me from….LINKEDIN and I then passed out on the floor and had to be revived. We have officially gone all the way on that platform.
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​“You tell the best stories and I look forward to all of your posts.”​
Quote from Alexandra & Bridgette.
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Which brings me to a major takeaway I had from the weekend.
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So many women I met were….forgettable. ​
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And it’s not because they were not amazing (quite the opposite)… it’s because they didn’t know how to connect (quickly) in this type of environment.
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The chat would go into that typical script of this is WHAT I do (OK cool…we need that.) But then I’d be amazed at how they would not read the room (AKA me in front of them in conversation) and would go on and on and on about WHAT they do.
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One woman even told me about her different level of coaching packages (TOO SOON TOO SOON!!)​
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But the women I met who I said to myself, “OMG MUST get to know her better”…you know what they all did?
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Told an amazing story OFF THE BAT
Got buy in from the audience (AKA me)​
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Like Ranjani’s, a woman who runs photography courses for how to photograph people of color.
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She told me about her immigration journey from India and how when she first came to Portland, Oregon she felt so out of place and her school pictures were always such a source of embarrassment for her.
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She captivated me.
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I wanted to know EVERYTHING about her and her business.
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Or Jessica, who runs a podcast studio, told me about her chronic years of infertility and her miracle baby that should not be alive today because she was born so premature.
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I was almost in tears and all of a sudden, her work amplifying other female voices through podcasts took on a whole new meaning.
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I could go on and on.
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But it was the storytelling that allowed some women to shine.
And the LACK OF storytelling that caused others to blend.
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You are not supposed to blend in with the masses, [FIRST NAME GOES HERE]
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Storytelling is the ultimate superpower (online but especially offline) and the same went for the speakers.
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The ones who captivated the most were the ones who relayed their message via personal storytelling.
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The ones that made you think “is this almost done” had little to no storytelling.
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If you know you need guidance on storytelling and don’t know where to start, you can start here.

It is my ground zero for anyone who comes into my orbit of courses, programs and even 1:1 engagements. You CANNOT storytell effectively if you have no idea how to tell someone who you are and why you are different in a scenario like my networking event.
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I teach you how to get this personal brand gold for your business and apply it to your life and in turn connect to your audience:

This course will help you get to the root of the hill you will die on and how to come up with your own personal brand affirmation statement that will have you knowing how to answer, “but what do you do?” in a way that connects to a stranger immediately.

My (all updated) AI workflows will teach you how to build your custom personal brand chart that ALL of your future content and marketing will stem from.

I use my AI charts Every single day in my business and do not know how I’d create any cohesive messaging if I didn’t have it.

Don’t let yourself be in a situation with a lot of opportunity and become forgettable.
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OK have a fab weekend… I will be going through my CVS haul asking myself deep questions like “why TF did I buy 3 different brand packs of false eyelashes” (I don’t even wear fake eyelashes but moving on……)