Try new things. take professional risks. Be nice so you have a powerful network that will be your marketers when you're starting out. There is no such thing as failing if you try stuff. Not all of it will work. But so what? Just try to do it better the next time. 

To be continued...

Says RIP to the DIY website. It was time. Gets into the Clubhouse audio app in 2021 and hosts a weekly room talking about "media, getting small business press and video storytelling." The room is jammed each week. The lightbulbs go off. "Make Media Moves" kicks off the summer of 2021 teaching small business owners how to tell their stories, show up on video and pitch the press. Her former TODAY show work wife is one of her co-teachers and the other one is a PR expert who she's only met online. The wonders of the Internet. Continues to build out the brand video side of the company. Continues to learn and invest in her own education. Looks back on this timeline and sees how life is full of twists and turns. 

Present

Patrice Poltzer Creative Levels-up

Doesn't know a pandemic is coming. Serendipitously invests in her own education the year before learning how to make a digital course in a 90-day Mastermind. Kicks off a "Video Storytelling Bootcamp" in February. Has no idea what she's doing. But it's good. And small business owners learn. She also finds a way to keep making $$ when all brand production halts for a year and a half. She launches 6 more live programs that year, learning, listening to her students & making the curriculum better. Ends the year with a 3rd baby. Realizes he may be the only kid in his classes with older siblings because getting pregnant locked down in a NYC apartment, homeschooling 2 kids and running a business screams "we need to check on the adult in that house."

2020

The rise of the digital side of the business

Is often the only female head of production at pitch meetings. Realizes you're not born an entrepreneur. But it's good to be really good at Google. Works with some huge brands. Works with small brands. Falls in love with the smaller business founders. They have fire & hustle that is addictive. Stops calling herself a freelancer. Steps into the roll of Founder of a company. Business grows every year. Company wouldn't have happened had she not hit that professional rockbottom in 2016.

2017-2020

Works with Netflix, lululemon, afterpay, & more

Reminds herself she's been rejected lots of times in life. And it's all worked out. Picks herself off the (literal) floor and builds her first website. A DIY one that was horrific. Sends out a note on social "announcing" her new video storytelling business. Literally has no clue what she's doing but she feels compelled to help businesses tell better stories because that's what she's good at.

January 2017

Forms Patrice Poltzer Creative

Realizes quickly the dream job was really the nightmare job. Confidence, esteem plummet. Questions everything. Doesn't last 90 days. Feels a bit pathetic asking for her old job back. Lays on her NY apartment floor with a newborn and a toddler feeling very afraid for the future.

2016-2017

"Dream Job" at media startup

Gets thrown into the Storytelling Deep End and swims. Launches a side hustle content website that TODAY.com's parenting section embraces. Gets her first taste of creating something from scratch. Notices how many businesses didn't know how to tell their story when they come to the show. Works a lot with founders and guests helping them see the "most interesting" bits of their story. Becomes fixated and haunted by the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Pitches a story to her boss that would require her to shoot, produce and report in refugee camps on the Greek borders. Wins a Gracie Award. Goes back again for a follow-up story six months later 7-months pregnant. Leaves for maternity leave for her second. Gets recruited to a media startup through Snapchat and the offer is too good to refuse. Leaves her kangaroo pouch of a workplace reluctantly but knows she needs to take a risk.

2012-2016

the today show producer

Gets hired for a video role in the brand side of the company. Not qualified but knows how to shoot video & edit -tech skills that would continue to help her rise quickly in the company. Her boss is an innovator & remains a mentor to this day. Unit folds because he was a bit early on "branded content" & she applies for a producer job at the TODAY Show. She gets it because she can shoot her own video, edit it together and act as a 1-woman storytelling band.

2010-2012

nbc-branded digital video producer

Gets an overnight associate producer job at Bloomberg TV covering the Asian markets. She was not on the business journalism track. But she knows how to Google financial terms. And she needs this job to work or else she's back on a 1-way ticket to Chicago.

June 2009

Moves to NYC Without a job but a lot of grad debt

Spoiler alert: doesn't happen. Realizes variety show public access TV training isn't in hot-demand after being rejected at all 60 stations she applies too. Still lost. Applies for grad school. Gets into the 1-year journalism program at Northwestern University. *wants to blast email to all the news directors who rejected her, but she is mature and doesn't do that.

Late 2000s

Tries to become a local tv reporter

Sells books door-to-door all over the country. Hosts public access show called, "Nude Hippo: Your Chicago Show". Worries parents. Watches friends fly through corporate jobs. Wonders what "she did wrong in college."

makes "lost" career decisions after college

Mid 2000s