What a plot twist 2024 turned out to be…
I looked up my last email of December 2023 -roughly 120 days into living in a brand new country – to get a pulse check of where I was a year ago.
Some of my own writing from last year stopped me dead in my scroll.
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Reading those words now, sitting in my Lisbon apartment (the same one that felt so foreign last December), those raw admissions from my first months here remind me that sometimes our hardest moments become our biggest teachers. (GAH this is really me writing and not a ChatGPT cliche🤣)
Moving from NYC to Lisbon wasn’t just about changing locations – it was about completely rebuilding a life and business from scratch. (spoiler alert.. IT’S👏🏽NOT👏🏽EASY!)
I had it all figured out in January🫠
The Master Plan:
✅Transform from video production to pure online business
✅Build “passive” income streams to my storytelling programs
✅Start running ads against my content
✅Live my best Euro life when I don’t need to be live all the time
✅Take the entire summer off to embody my European “what’s a weekend” mentality (because see point above.)
Basically, I was going to master this whole “digital entrepreneur in Europe” thing while figuring out Portuguese washing machines and revamping the entire “hard water” filtration system of horrors.
But the Lisboa Gods had other plans.
Plot Twist
I remember thinking to myself in March, “This feels SO HARD” in my efforts to “be an online-only business.”
Things kept going wrong.
Like the time I had to completely restructure a course launch 3 days before going live because the original content disappeared.
Or when my “amazing idea” for a passive product launched just shy of $10,000 instead of our predicted $50,000+.
At every turn, I consistently underestimated what it would take to build a thriving online business.
The Amy Porterfield Dream is not what it was in today’s landscape. European Digital Nomad Cocktail in Hand on a Beach Patrice was not showing up in my Crystal Ball. *but I REALLY tried.
The Turning Point
My AI-powered storytelling bot.
We initially created it as a simple lead magnet in April.
I diagnosed my poor sales for my evergreen courses as an audience traffic problem and not a “we don’t want another course” problem.
Easy fix.
Focus on growing my email list, I said to my team.
Wiebke, operations AND AI building mega Queen whipped up a simple free storytelling bot that was meant to drive people to my programs….
But Jesus took the wheel.
Because he told me “GIRL, you are on the WRONG HIGHWAY GET OFF NOW.”
This cute “Free bot” (albeit a bit of a tech fail as it was not meant for THOUSANDS to use it) revealed something huge:
People were hungry for a tool that could help them show up better in their marketing. To craft compelling stories, overcome writer’s block, and connect with their audience in a more meaningful way.
So I pivoted.
We tore our 2024 business strategy sheet to shreds.
The only thing remaining on it was running my Founder’s Fire because that program IS my daughter.
AND NOW WHAT…
My StoryPro is the storytelling product I was meant to build all along but couldn’t see it myself.
I wanted more impact and I thought that was through evergreen courses.
But I was wrong.
I wanted less “live” time with my people but discovered some of my most fulfilling moments this year were from coaching & teaching founders LIVE and who inspire me to be a better leader. (I had more private clients this year than ever before)
2024 has been a masterclass in resilience.
A reminder that we are always capable of so much more than we think.
A year later:
✅The apartment that felt foreign is now home
✅The marriage that was stretched has deepened
✅The world that felt cruel has shown me incredible kindness through this community & the new one I’m building in Lisbon (although don’t get me started on the state of the world in general😭)
And perhaps most importantly – I’ve learned that it’s okay to:
👌🏼Let plans burn to the ground
👌🏼Feel lost sometimes (a lot of times)
👌🏼Build something different than you imagined
👌🏼Start over (again and again)
To my amazing community.
You’ve stuck with me through: (all my sales emails and my 876 launches this year)
–The messy transitions
-The vulnerable moments
-The technical glitches
-The pivot after pivot after pivot
And you’ve shown me that building something meaningful isn’t about being perfect – it’s about being real.
Whether you’ve been here since my TODAY Show days or just joined during our latest AI adventure, you’re part of this story.
Last December, I was questioning everything.
This December, I’m grateful for those questions – they led me here.
To a business that looks nothing like I planned but feels exactly right.
To a community that shows up in ways I never expected. (I met so many of you IRL in Lisbon this year!)
To a life that’s messy and real and so much better than any carefully crafted plan.
Here’s to 2025 – may it be filled with your real stories, genuine connections, and the courage to keep showing up as yourself (even when you convince yourself no one will care anyway…seriously you need Pocket Patrice to get you out of your head!!!).
With gratitude (and probably some pastel de nata crumbs on my keyboard)
