It’s my first birthday living in another country and I wanted to cancel it.
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32 (AGAIN!!!) I hope you can FEEL the sarcasm through the screen.

I don’t know about you, but I’m one of “those birthday people” who have always felt my mortality deeply and it didn’t matter if I was 12, 17 or 25 or 30…the time that had passed each year was always shocking to me.
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The time just keeps on slipping. It made me so sad for a lot of years.
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After a wonderful surprise birthday weekend in what I call our gateway Portugal drug (we visited Comporta on a whim in 2019 and fell in love so go there with EXTREME CAUTION) my husband TENTATIVELY asked “if I wanted to do something special on the ACTUAL DAY.”

I immediately said NO. (self-preservation)
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Nine months in, we’re still building friendships, community, getting to know people, figuring out who our people are.
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And just like starting a business or going after a huge goal in your life….there are lots of unknowns.

• Trial and error is part of the process.
• Going down one lane blind to then learn new insights (good & bad).
• It is time consuming.
• Fun.
• Exhausting.
• Exciting.
• Frustrating.
• Full of self-doubt but also strong internal conviction.
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I felt like no one would care enough to come celebrate my birthday.
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We’re not “good enough friends” yet.
Who would I invite actually?

​Are we even friends? What is the time limit on that?
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​Plus no one would probably come anyway (TUESDAY is a lame day for a birthday….even more of a reason to not do anything.)
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​But then last Friday I had the voice of one of my storytelling students in my brain who happens to run an entire business and brand on building friendships as adults and I listen to her soothing voice on her fabulous podcast and I heard myself say,
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​“If you want to build something meaningful, you have to put yourself out there Patrice.”

And isn’t that what I tell you all the time?​
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✅SHOW UP!
✅Make the video!
✅Just start!
✅Your voice is the most powerful!!
✅The world needs YOUR stories so get going!

And yet, here I was about to NOT show up in a major way because I was afraid of rejection.
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I imagined myself sending out an invite and no one coming.
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It actually felt painful just thinking of this scenario and my brain believed it to be true until last Friday when all of a sudden I had a flash second of bravery.
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And I decided to act on that before the feeling would evaporate. (I had to REMOVE the line where I said, “no worries if you can’t come I know it’s short notice.” )
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​This text took me longer than you’ll ever know to draft.
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How to sound casual without sounding desperate yet letting people know I AM FINE if you don’t want to come (but was that really true?)

And the strangest thing happened.
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I got these responses.

And you know what….. They came.

So many of them.

And some even brought me gifts which made me emotional because I was genuinely shocked.

As I looked at this group of people and the revolving door of humans who stopped by to toast, or just give me a quick hug…humans I didn’t know existed a mere 9 months ago, it hit me that this turnout was BECAUSE I have been putting myself out there a lot …..even though it’s always an internal struggle.

Putting yourself out there will always be worth it.
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I had one of the best birthdays of my life surrounded by so much love.

Sure, these people have not known me longer than a handful of months, but like I said, “it takes effort and time to build something meaningful.”

If you are struggling to show up or put yourself out there in some capacity in your life, I really do understand your fear.
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The insecurity of it all.
It’s not easy.
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But you must do it.
You must do it scared.
Because time IS running out.

I hope this note gives you a boost of confidence or comfort in knowing there is someone else out there (me) who struggles to put themselves out there too but chooses to still do it anyway.
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I hope you choose to do it too.
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And as always, if you need help in doing this in your business or you just aren’t doing it on your own, please check out how we can work together below.
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I always recommend everyone start out with my Business Storytelling Starter Kit.

I am incredibly proud of this bundle and I teach you how to use AI in a thoughtful and efficient way to give you clarity on how to convey your unique value proposition in your niche.