Latest / Crafted Connections / EP 2: Tech, Storytelling, & Creativity with Patti Meyer

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EP 2: Tech, Storytelling, & Creativity with Patti Meyer · Crafted Connections

0:03
Katelyn: Hello, welcome to Crafted Connections.
0:07
Katelyn: I'm Katelyn Calhoun, and this is a podcast all about storytelling and building genuine community.
0:12
Katelyn: Here we'll dive into the art of storytelling, unpack strategies for making meaningful connections, and hear from incredible humans who are using their story to create impact.
0:22
Katelyn: So grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and let's craft some connections.
0:27
Katelyn: Hey, hey, welcome back.
0:31
Katelyn: I'm so excited to have you in this episode of Crafted Connections.
0:36
Katelyn: We're gonna take a journey through the life, business, and self-discovery experiences of the one and only Patti Meyer.
0:45
Katelyn: What can I say about Patti?
0:47
Katelyn: I I can't even express it.
0:49
Katelyn: You're gonna hear in my voice, in her voice.
0:51
Katelyn: Uh we uh absolutely love each other.
0:54
Katelyn: We are business besties.
0:55
Katelyn: Uh, we talk about all the good stuff, but she has such an interesting story.
1:00
Katelyn: Currently, she is the CEO and founder of BizMagic, which offers tech solutions to businesses.
1:06
Katelyn: And before this, she lived a whole entire other life, right?
1:10
Katelyn: And that's why I wanted her to be one of the early guests on the podcast.
1:14
Katelyn: Because even though she serves people in one way and that people, most people meet her that way, there's this whole other behind-the-scenes version of her that uh the world needs to know.
1:25
Katelyn: So we talk about a few things like her experience in her early 20s living in what she lovingly calls the hippie house.
1:31
Katelyn: We talk a lot about showing up fully and how it's kind of the best way to go.
1:36
Katelyn: To be yourself fully loud and proud, it's a beautiful thing.
1:39
Katelyn: And we talk about our own experiences with that.
1:41
Katelyn: But now, with over 20 years of experience in business management, Patti helps female and gender-expansive entrepreneurs untangle the stress of back-end tact.
1:50
Katelyn: You know, I was one of those people.
1:52
Katelyn: Uh, and it helps us focus on making a bigger impact.
1:54
Katelyn: So it's fun to like dig into the roots of like her why behind all this and all the work she does.
2:01
Katelyn: I am so excited to share our conversation and share my dear friend Patti with you all today.
2:06
Katelyn: So, Patti, welcome to Crafted Connections.
2:10
Katelyn: How are you?
2:11
Katelyn: I'm super excited to be here hanging out with you.
2:15
Katelyn: You're my favorite, and I'm so excited to hang out with you.
2:19
Katelyn: Tell our audience a little bit about you so then get to know you before we dive in deeper.
2:24
Patti: Yeah, so my name is Patti, and I'm currently living in Frisco, Texas, but I uh consider myself from San Francisco, um, though my childhood years were in Chicago.
2:36
Patti: Um, but yeah, I've been here for about eight years.
2:40
Patti: I have my own business, BizMagic, that I love, that is a huge part of my life and how I identify myself.
2:51
Patti: Um and I have uh two kitties that are my children um by choice, but not in a creepy cat lady kind of way, although no problem with creepy cat ladies at all.
3:03
Patti: Um, and I love being creative anytime I can do anything, though it tends to be in fits and starts.
3:09
Patti: I love crocheting or I'm just starting a pottery class or things like that.
3:14
Patti: And um, yeah, in general, I just uh like people and I like helping people, and that's pretty much my reason for existence as far as I'm concerned.
3:25
Katelyn: Love it.
3:25
Katelyn: I love it.
3:26
Katelyn: Uh so you and I met in the summer of 2023 at a retreat of uh one of one of your clients, and uh we immediately connected uh from the standpoint of we both are a little bit obsessed with our businesses and our work, and we find a lot of passion in that, both in the creative and the technical side of things.
3:45
Katelyn: But the funnest thing about you, Patti, is you're like, okay, cool.
3:48
Katelyn: Patti, owner of Biz Magic, tech superstar, builds things out so your systems are clean, wonderful, great.
3:54
Katelyn: Uh, but then like things pop up, like, oh yeah, all those times I went to Burning Man, or, you know, nipple rings and like just things that I just never suspected to come out of your mouth over the you know last year and a half that we've known each other, which feels like so much longer.
4:09
Katelyn: It just always blows my mind.
4:11
Katelyn: And when I was talking to you about being on the podcast, you filled out a questionnaire.
4:18
Katelyn: And the question that I like really was just like so excited to dive into was like, what's a defining time in your life?
4:25
Patti: Absolutely.
4:26
Patti: So, and it's such a weird thing for me sometimes to talk about because there's almost a part of it that in this one way was kind of culty.
4:34
Patti: It was there was a little cultishness with it.
4:37
Patti: And in fact, my family was convinced I was in a cult um during this period of time.
4:42
Patti: It was not.
4:43
Patti: I mean, maybe sort of, but not really.
4:45
Patti: It wasn't.
4:46
Katelyn: Well, and let's back up a little bit to define it.
4:48
Katelyn: The way you've defined it is it was kind of you call it the hippie house, and you just you and a bunch of friends lived in a house together and built blanket forts and played glow-in-the-dark mini golf and uh really just lived very alternatively to 9 to 5, you know, and and it sounds magical.
5:08
Patti: And I could see where it became all consuming.
5:10
Patti: It was all consuming, yeah.
5:11
Patti: So essentially I met this this friend of mine um at this job that I was working at, and to this day I still am connected to many people from that job.
5:20
Patti: That job in and of itself, which was literally just working at Aaron Brothers Art and Framing, um, turned into kind of this so much more.
5:29
Patti: And I quickly kind of connected with this person, we became really good friends, and then um one of the places that he was living with his girlfriend had a room.
5:38
Patti: I moved in because by this point we were hanging out all the time, and we would go to like these parties in the forest for the weekend and just dance to psychedelic trance.
5:48
Patti: Obviously, we did some drugs and things, and yeah, it was fun.
5:54
Patti: We had so much fun.
5:55
Patti: He was a very playful person and still is.
5:58
Patti: I loved that.
5:59
Patti: I loved that we played all the time.
6:01
Patti: Every like I brought out my old Barbies from when I was a kid, and we dreaded their hair and drew on them and had play had dance parties with them and his action figures, and like it was just everything we did was so fun all the time.
6:17
Patti: And so it did sort of create this bubble where we were separate from a lot of people, and it was sort of like, why do I have to work in this world that everybody has created for us and that we're told we're supposed to act this certain way, or like wear matching clothes all the time, and you know, so I did.
6:34
Patti: I dreaded my hair, and I went to Burning Man and parties, and we went to Amsterdam, and you know, it was a lot of fun, and it was, you know, really powerful and life-changing, also in that because we were all together all the time, we developed really deep relationships and we trusted each other in these really deep ways that I hadn't ever really fully let people in.
7:00
Patti: I've had some childhood trauma, I had a hard time with physical touch because of some of that.
7:07
Patti: And they would do things like just put their hand on my leg and like, ha ha ha ha ha, I'm touching you, you know, and it was like very lighthearted and playful and safe.
7:18
Patti: And so through this, I sort of found this part of myself that was like, yeah, I don't fucking wanna be in corporate world, I don't wanna do all of these things and live in this sort of life, the way that it's been presented to us as we should be in it.
7:37
Patti: I want to, I found magic in it, right?
7:40
Patti: Like we experience things like instant manifestation and like all sorts of crazy things and the experiences I had during that time, I I can't even like there's just so many.
7:51
Patti: And it's like when I think of stories and the most interesting and fun stories of my life, they're all from that period of time.
7:56
Patti: I've had some amazing moments in my life, of course, and I love my time in my theater and stuff like that after that, but it was such a divining moment, and because it was very awe-consuming, and there was then sort of this judgmental attitude that came with it of like us having to be not light workers, but there's people out there that have that sort of converse, like, oh, we're light workers, we're here to change the world and all of that.
8:20
Patti: And so there was like a low-levelness of that, and so if you didn't fit into that and weren't doing things in this perfect way, you were judged.
8:29
Patti: And so when I kind of was like, I used to be able to talk to anybody at any time about anything, and I can't do that anymore.
8:37
Katelyn: So when you were like kind of all encompassed in this this this friend group, essentially, um you you found that uh there was a separation, yeah.
8:45
Patti: And there were a lot of people kind of in this friend group that were they were kind of on the outskirts of it, and the core was really this friend of mine and his girlfriend, and then me.
8:54
Patti: And then there'd be one or two people that would glob on kind of, and we had a housemate, he we he would go and do things with us, but he wasn't as connected as we were.
9:02
Patti: We were like inseparable, and you know, so that's where the culty-nish feel kind of came from of like, and when I started to veer and wanted to hang out like with that roommate, it got weird, right?
9:13
Patti: Like it was like, well, now with us. So there were those bits of it.
9:15
Katelyn: In your early 20s, you went through this experience.
9:19
Katelyn: So can you kind of describe the pre-hippy house Patti and post-hippy house Patti, right?
9:25
Katelyn: Because if that is like you're like, you look at that time in your life, and that was so pivotal for you, so many wonderful experiences.
9:33
Katelyn: And also, like, you know, you there's another side of that coin, like other not so wonderful experiences.
9:37
Katelyn: So, so what was like the change you saw in yourself?
9:41
Patti: Yeah, so pre that experience, right?
9:43
Patti: I was a little more grounded in my type A personality.
9:49
Patti: I was very organized, all of my movies were alphabetized, all of my right, which is what we can see in me now in my organization and stuff like that.
9:58
Patti: So I was very, but I was very that and I was very structured.
10:02
Patti: I worried about what everybody thought all the time about me.
10:04
Patti: I was very anxious.
10:06
Patti: Um, I actually had very severe um like agoraphobia issues and social anxiety and things like that.
10:15
Patti: Um, and I was afraid to kind of come out of my shell a little bit, you know?
10:21
Patti: And like I just worried what people thought about me.
10:24
Patti: And after all of this sort of experience that happened there, I was way more chill.
10:30
Patti: I kind of went with things a bit more, was more excited about adventure.
10:36
Patti: I just really had embraced that creative side of myself.
10:39
Patti: I never had been creative outwardly before that, but I had tried making music and I was sewing all my own clothes, literally everything I owned, I sewed.
10:47
Patti: It was just sort of this different side of myself, of just this explosive creative part.
10:54
Patti: And and this is where it got really interesting, is as this sort of little fell apart, this period of time in this friend group kind of fell apart, and I moved out of the house.
11:04
Patti: We all set moved away, and the year kind of after that almost felt like grief.
11:08
Patti: It felt like I had left a relationship, it was very intense.
11:11
Patti: I then sort of felt lost because I was like, well, who am I without these people that actually we had had thoughts of like, we're gonna have land and live together, and you know, like the hippie dream.
11:22
Patti: And so who am I now?
11:24
Patti: And what do I look, what does it look like for me?
11:26
Patti: And so I got to sort of redefine that.
11:29
Patti: And in that process, that's where I found, oh wait, type A Patti still exists, but type A Patti doesn't have to rule all of Patti, right?
11:40
Patti: And so I get to, because I still I had started working in a nonprofit theater at that point, so I wasn't in corporate world, and I found something I really loved that I had done in high school that I then found my way back to.
11:52
Patti: So I had this new creative side of myself that I got to do, but I ended up being an operations manager at that place because you know, manager organization Patti still existed.
12:03
Patti: And but she now could coexist with creative, go with the flow, chill Patti.
12:09
Patti: Um, and I wasn't anxious anymore in the same way, and I wasn't, and so a lot of those challenges that I had, I had worked through and and worked out.
12:18
Patti: And so I was sort of this almost like this better and improved in a in a light playful way of saying that.
12:25
Katelyn: Almost like you became more of yourself.
12:27
Katelyn: As you're sharing this story in more detail, like it's just so fun to keep learning little bits about you, but then to hear more about this particular experience, I'm like, oh, that makes the perfect cocktail that is patty today, right?
12:38
Katelyn: And it's such a delicious cocktail, and it's more and more and more and more Patti, right?
12:43
Katelyn: And I love that because something that I personally have been working on is trying to incorporate more play, you know, not letting it be perfect.
12:50
Katelyn: And it just sounds like you had a wonderful early 20s experience where you got to play crazy amounts and and therefore you got to reconnect with yourself and then immerse it with like um the parts of you that were rewarded by what is acceptable, you know, in traditional operations, if you will.
13:08
Katelyn: Um, like it's a beautiful skill, but also the creative side of you, right?
13:12
Katelyn: Needed needed some love as well.
13:14
Katelyn: That's so cool.
13:15
Patti: Yeah, and I think it made me less afraid of being myself in the world and what myself looked like in that creative side, my whole self, right?
13:25
Patti: I think it allowed, it kind of almost broke down this other side of myself that in that moment was deemed crappy and not healthy, which was not true, and brought up this creative, exciting, playful side of myself.
13:38
Patti: And after it happened, then I was able to say, Oh no, wait, I can marry both of them.
13:44
Patti: This is a whole being, actually.
13:46
Patti: And I just one side of each of me was stifled in both the pre-Patti and then the during Patti a little bit, and then the after Patti was like, Yeah, I get to be fun and playful and organized as fuck, and like, you know, and I can run a business, but I can also sit and crochet on the weekends and take myself to go sit at a lake, and you know, like I can still be all of those things and not show up in a certain way and you know, sit here without a bra on and not give a shit and like you know what I mean, like, and just exist in the world in a way that feels really amazing for me.
14:23
Katelyn: Yeah.
14:24
Katelyn: And which then gives permission to others.
14:26
Katelyn: I see how that then all ties into like your your values and how you exist in the world today.
14:30
Katelyn: So maybe uh can you speak more to like what are what do you value from from your life experiences and and how do you see yourself in the world today?
14:42
Patti: So my big passion, and this is something that I've had since I was little.
14:47
Patti: I want to help people, I want to save everybody, fix everyone.
14:51
Patti: I'm working now on not trying to fix everyone and save the world and learning how to hold space when needed instead of always trying to go into fix-it mode.
14:58
Patti: But I believe strongly that there are too many taboos in our world.
15:04
Patti: Like we don't, we're not allowed to talk about so many things like money and sex and nipple rings and you know, whatever.
15:10
Patti: And and that it's it's not okay to talk about those things, right?
15:14
Patti: Um, and I don't think that that is the healthiest thing because I think we all struggle and we all have stuff.
15:20
Patti: And the more that that we talk about what goes on for us and in our lives and what we experience as individual humans, the more other people feel seen and feel heard and receive permission and know that they're okay and they're quote unquote normal.
15:38
Patti: And so that's always been for such a long time a big part of me and why I believe I'm here.
15:44
Patti: I believe I'm here to just sort of help other people and and not be afraid.
15:49
Patti: Not, you know, I'm an open book, I'll talk about anything because if it helps somebody else through something that they're struggling with, oh my god, like then I'm I'm happy.
15:59
Patti: Um, and so that's always been a part of me since I was young.
16:02
Patti: And I think I started therapy when I was like 10.
16:05
Patti: So early on, I was like, oh, I'm gonna be, you know, I always thought I was gonna be a teacher, and then I was gonna be a therapist, and then I went back to being a therapist after a theater person, and now I'm a business owner.
16:17
Patti: So I kind of does therapy with my clients because I work with, you know, solopreneurs, so it's kind of right.
16:23
Katelyn: You're a therapist without being a therapist because of all the legality of naming yourself as a therapist.
16:27
Katelyn: Yeah, totally.
16:27
Katelyn: Um, that is hilarious because literally from our first interaction in person to today, you really do hold a lot of space for people.
16:35
Katelyn: You serve people who work for themselves, right?
16:38
Katelyn: And working for yourself is a dark, scary place, uh, very dark, scary place.
16:43
Katelyn: Uh, and it's, you know, an ultimate test in uh mental fortitude and to have someone who's gonna hold that space for you and get your ducks in a row.
16:52
Katelyn: And then you're like, I can breathe.
16:54
Katelyn: I can breathe, you know.
16:56
Katelyn: Uh so would you mind kind of talking about the transition from, you know, you were at the theater, and then I think you ended up working somewhere else in between then and working for yourself.
17:06
Katelyn: But yeah, what was the transition to like Patti is leaning into helping people and working for herself in that?
17:14
Patti: When I worked at the theater, I worked at this the the small nonprofit theater in San Francisco for about 10 years.
17:19
Patti: And um, because it was San Francisco in a nonprofit arts organization, I worked on the side for this woman who she worked in corporate recruiting, but she worked at home from her home office.
17:32
Patti: So I would work sort of on the side for her while I was working at the theater pretty much the whole time.
17:37
Patti: I had always thought that I wanted to be in psychology.
17:41
Patti: And so I sort of reached this point where I was like, I felt, even though I love the theater, I felt trapped almost and like, where do I go from here?
17:47
Patti: Because really at this point, it's just to work in other offices, right?
17:51
Patti: And that's because I by that point I had stepped a little more out of the lighting design and the running the shows and more into office and and operations management.
18:00
Patti: And so I was like, fuck it, you know, the only way I'm ever gonna get out of this is if I go and do what what I thought that I meant to do, which is to be a psychologist.
18:09
Patti: And so I I had a partner at that time, and so he, you know, was gonna help pick up some of the financial slack.
18:15
Patti: And I had talked to the woman on the side, and she's like, I'll give you more work, so you're good.
18:20
Patti: And I happened to get bought out of my apartment because I was at like a in an apartment in the the mission district in San Francisco where all the tech people were coming in and so they wanted my apartment.
18:29
Patti: And so it just all happened at once.
18:30
Patti: So I was like, fuck it.
18:31
Patti: I left my theater and went to school.
18:34
Patti: And so on the side, I was still working for that woman and picked up a couple other small things where I was helping them with administration, helping them organize all their stuff.
18:42
Patti: So kind of starting to look at what I'm doing is what I started doing with BizMagic.
18:47
Patti: Um, I went to school for a few years, a whole other situation happened with life, and I moved to Texas where I was finishing out my final semester and was gonna go to Texas A&M for my bachelor's in psychology, but like half my credits didn't transfer, and it was gonna cost me so much more money.
19:07
Patti: And by this point, we're talking, I didn't go to college until I was in my early 30s.
19:11
Patti: And so now I'm looking at, okay, well, I'm not gonna have a license because you need hours, you need all this stuff.
19:17
Patti: Like, I'm not gonna be able to have any sort of private practice until I'm in my late 40s at this stage, right?
19:22
Patti: And so much more money and time.
19:24
Patti: And and I just was like, I also don't know that I want to sit in a room one-on-one with people.
19:31
Patti: Bless the people who do that.
19:32
Patti: They're amazing.
19:33
Patti: Uh, my therapists have changed my life.
19:35
Patti: I have an amazing one right now, but I don't know that that's what I want.
19:39
Patti: And so I started really thinking about that and just sort of hit this moment where I was like, but I love tech.
19:44
Patti: I love like I've always been good.
19:46
Patti: I was making little Yahoo websites in the 90s when you could first do that, like about soap operas.
19:52
Patti: I would make fangirl websites because I was obsessed with the soap opera of my children.
19:57
Katelyn: It's like it just keeps unfolding.
19:59
Katelyn: I, you know, there's so much I just keep learning about you, and I just love it so much.
20:03
Patti: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:03
Patti: I was always making little things and websites and tech and wanting to learn things, and I was typing on a computer when I was like six to write stories, and so I was like, I fucking love tech.
20:15
Patti: I seem to be decent at business because I always end up in management positions.
20:18
Patti: I'm like, and I'm already sort of doing this stuff.
20:21
Patti: I know how to work remotely because that's what I've been doing for this woman.
20:24
Patti: Let me give this a go.
20:25
Patti: And I just started it, and it was, you know, back before VAs were a thing.
20:30
Patti: And uh I put a resume on Craigslist, and that's how I got a couple of my first people here locally, and it just sort of grew from there.
20:42
Patti: So, and I still get to do a lot of what I feel like is, like I said, psychology and supporting people and helping them feel seen and heard and held, and the number of people who cry when they talk to me in like sessions and like just strategy sessions, even because they don't feel alone anymore.
20:58
Patti: Because I'm like, it's okay that you're this is happening, or that you are struggling, or like that is a hundred percent normal in business.
21:07
Katelyn: Well, and yeah, I want to reflect on that, even thinking about yeah, our first interaction and all our interactions since it's pretty common when you work with someone uh that they will tell you what you need, but like you do operate like a therapist.
21:23
Katelyn: Again, disclaimer, Patti is not a therapist, but you do operate one where like one where you're not out here telling people what to do.
21:31
Katelyn: You're offering solutions, you're giving reflective questions, you're laying information out and being like, what do you see here?
21:38
Katelyn: Like in particular, like you you looked at the way my business operated and you were like, here's the information.
21:44
Katelyn: Is this sufficient, Katelyn?
21:46
Katelyn: Shocker, it was not.
21:49
Katelyn: But but also say, right?
21:51
Katelyn: And um, and so you know, obviously, like this podcast is is about talking to my people and their stories and like.
21:59
Katelyn: How my community has grown over the years, and how those people have grown community through stories and experiences, like, you know, like your hippie house experience.
22:09
Katelyn: That was a very community-driven experience for you.
22:12
Katelyn: And I think, like, you know, we're talking a lot about business, but it's because we're both obsessed and we both like love it and we both love the creativity and the ingenuity.
22:21
Katelyn: And even though, you know, you focus on tech and I focus on story and have a strong video background, like we find such intersection because we've shared stories in both those spaces, right?
22:31
Katelyn: And I think maybe I want to dive a little bit into the online uh business community because you're so immersed in that.
22:37
Katelyn: All your clients are in that space.
22:39
Katelyn: Um, I'm pseudo in that space, pseudo-irl.
22:42
Katelyn: And with that, how have you seen like your community grow by like sharing fellow stories with entrepreneurs?
22:48
Katelyn: Or do you have any experiences of that nature that you'd like to share?
22:52
Patti: Yeah, well, this being one of those, I mean, right?
22:55
Patti: I mean, you're somebody who came from that community, right?
22:59
Patti: So through my client Erica and getting to go to our retreat, which by the way, I have to share.
23:04
Patti: One of my favorite moments where I was like, I am so in love with this human, is we went to go eat food at one of these restaurants, um, I think it was Mexican or something like that.
23:15
Patti: And uh I was, we were looking at fajitas or something, and you just looked and, you're like, we love a sizzle.
23:20
Patti: And I was like, Because we do love a sizzle.
23:24
Katelyn: That's like my favorite thing about his fajitas.
23:26
Katelyn: They come out sizzling, and you always get jealous when other tables get them.
23:30
Katelyn: Right.
23:30
Patti: But it was just the cute, it was the best thing like, we love a sizzle.
23:34
Patti: I'm like, we do love a sizzle, Katelyn.
23:35
Patti: Yes, we do, and I love you.
23:37
Patti: And this was amazing.
23:38
Patti: But it was like, you know, getting to be there, and I still talk to several people from from that retreat.
23:45
Patti: And as my community has grown through the the online networking, so I have some opinions about the online business.
23:53
Katelyn: No, let's go.
23:53
Katelyn: I honestly was like, hmm, is there a parallel between your early cult 20s experience and your online business community culty experience?
24:01
Katelyn: Like there is that. I was like definitely feeling some threads in your life there.
24:03
Patti: Yeah.
24:07
Patti: Yes.
24:08
Patti: So I feel like um, and anybody who wants to come can come, uh there's an MLM multi-level marketing feel to a lot of the online business world.
24:21
Patti: And that can make some of the community feel kind of icky.
24:24
Patti: And I think because of my earlier experience, which again fucking loved that period of my life, there was some challenges in there, but it defined who I am ultimately.
24:35
Patti: But I was a little more on alert when I started seeing some of just there was it was very clicky.
24:43
Patti: There's a lot of do this and you'll be successful, and only if you use this program or this coach, or and there's a lot of that.
24:52
Patti: And I kind of am coming into this world with this rebellious nature of being like, fuck that.
24:58
Patti: Like, no, that's not there's not just one way to do everything.
25:02
Patti: And the it and it was heightened for me because of the the role that I held, where I would have people come to me needing support and saying, Well, but I was working with this coach and they told me I had to do this, but I haven't been able to do it.
25:15
Patti: And these people that were coming full of shame and full of feeling like a failure.
25:21
Katelyn: The word that pops up to me is like I heartbroken, right?
25:24
Katelyn: You're you you're there were promises that you know didn't necessarily and sometimes it's like your own responsibility, but also no, like it's you know, there's there's a narrative that you f listen into, you lean into, and you're given promises because the narrative is like, oh, are you like this?
25:40
Katelyn: You'll get this by the end, and then you don't get that by the end, and then you're like, all my systems are everywhere, and I'm sad and I have no money, and enter patty.
25:49
Katelyn: The amount of space you give people to kind of heal from those things and get things a little bit tighter, yeah, yeah, does wonders.
25:58
Patti: Yeah, and I think that the big part of that is that a lot of the messages that happen in that community are if it's not working, it's you.
26:06
Patti: And so when people are coming to me, they're heartbroken because it didn't work, but that's where that shame and the guilt and they they feel like it's there's something that they did and something that they did wrong.
26:16
Patti: And so I sort of am there being like, it's not you, honey, it's the system, right?
26:20
Patti: And it's that you know, you kind of got tricked a little bit.
26:24
Patti: And so through that and through being able to be there for people and support people, it grew for me, this community.
26:32
Patti: And so the really beautiful thing is that the the amount of women, strong, passionate, intelligent, amazing women, and the online business community is fucking mind-blowing.
26:48
Patti: That is one of the ways that my community has grown.
26:52
Patti: Like I now feel like I have people all over the place, all over the country, all over the world, that I adore because one of the things that I took from sort of those early defining experiences and working at my theater and just sort of living on the outside of what is acceptable in our society and corporate blah blah blah and whatever.
27:13
Patti: Um, no shade to corporate anything, um, if that's your path.
27:17
Patti: But is that I get to choose who I work with and I get to say, I want my community to be filled with amazing women who and women and female presenting and people who are just amazing humans that are doing something good for the world and that are taking the things and the steps that are scary.
27:40
Patti: And so that's what my community has grown into is just I just have so many amazing humans that I just adore and I want to be friends with.
27:51
Patti: And and there's so many people who clients who don't work with me anymore, but I'm still friends with.
27:56
Patti: Um, because there's just so many amazing people in this community, and so that's been a really fun part um of this and and and how that's grown.
28:06
Katelyn: I mean, that's kind of how we met, right?
28:07
Katelyn: I um I never had an intention or interest in growing or building an online business.
28:13
Katelyn: I mean, large parts of my business are online now.
28:16
Katelyn: Uh, I mean, I'm a nomad, right?
28:18
Katelyn: Uh, but I was originally attracted to, you know, what eventually led me to the retreat where we met was the fact that so many women are building online businesses, right?
28:31
Katelyn: Like, uh, yeah, there's entrepreneurial um endeavors in planted, you know, brick and mortar businesses as well, but just to open the doors and it's like just there's just thousands upon thousands upon tens upon hundreds of thousands of women who are starting businesses, doing their dang thing, and you can meet them on the internet.
28:52
Katelyn: That's what brought me there, right?
28:54
Katelyn: And then the journey of like, oh, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, Katelyn Calhoun crash was real.
29:00
Katelyn: Um, but uh, I don't regret it.
29:04
Katelyn: I would do it again.
29:05
Katelyn: We learned, it goes back to, you know, you said some experiences in your early 20s, you're like, we got to be more Patti as a result of it.
29:11
Katelyn: I get to be more Katelyn as a result of it, right?
29:14
Katelyn: Um, but yeah, but then there is that dark side of like there's something wrong with you, and that narrative just has not been constructive for I think a lot of people.
29:22
Patti: And I think that it's really interesting that it's almost like the safe space for women, entrepreneurs, and solopreneurs to step into because it's kind of saying, fuck everything else, I'm gonna do this myself.
29:37
Patti: Because if I'm gonna go work try to work somewhere else and I'm gonna get paid less or not be respected, or you know, any of this because uh I'm a female or I'm female identifying, like that's nonsense.
29:53
Patti: But here in this sort of community, you get to be who you wanna be, and you get to be who you are, rather, and be respected for that, and be seen for the skills that you have, and that's where you get to shine.
30:10
Patti: And I think that there's something different that happens there because it's a community that's really been built by us and for us, and so you know, I have nothing against men, but I don't typically work with a lot of men because when I have, I get this sort of condescending experience.
30:31
Patti: And why did you hire me if you're gonna tell me how to do my job?
30:35
Patti: You know?
30:35
Patti: Yeah, no, definitely so there's a lot of that that happens sort of in the quote unquote real make and brick and mortar world that doesn't happen as much when you kind of build your own community.
30:47
Katelyn: Well, and and I think just to like double-click or emphasize that that is the beauty of the world we live in today is we can share ourselves openly, vulnerably, truthfully, and still find community because we're all more connected than ever.
31:03
Katelyn: And I loved one of the questions I asked you prior to this uh conversation was like, How do you want people to feel as a result of you know hearing your story?
31:12
Katelyn: And you said seen, heard, and inspired.
31:15
Katelyn: And I was like, boom, boom, boom.
31:17
Katelyn: She knows.
31:18
Katelyn: And and I love it because I think you make people feel that in person as well.
31:23
Katelyn: Would you mind expanding on those feelings and why those are so important for you to see others experience it?
31:31
Patti: Yeah.
31:31
Patti: So I think kind of back to what I was saying earlier about us walking around and living in a world of taboos that tells us what not to say and what not to talk about.
31:42
Patti: When I get to share and I willingly share all the parts of myself, it gives people the permission to share parts of themselves.
31:52
Patti: And it becomes a domino effect, right?
31:55
Patti: Because every time, you know, I get to reach however many people by sharing my stories, by sharing who I am, by just being me.
32:01
Patti: And then if even two people in that community that I share with are like, yeah, fuck it, I can share myself too.
32:08
Patti: And then they go and share themselves or share just even one little thing about themselves that maybe they wouldn't have before, because it's not an overnight thing to go from maybe being a little more buttoned up to being like, here is all of me.
32:19
Patti: But maybe it's, you know, you start to partially unbutton a tiny piece of you and and you share one thing.
32:26
Patti: You know, maybe it's maybe for you it's hard to talk about money.
32:29
Patti: And so maybe you share what a financial goal is for you.
32:32
Patti: And that gives permission for somebody else to share what their financial goal is.
32:35
Patti: And then maybe they step was take it a step further and say, Yeah, and I didn't quite meet that financial goal.
32:41
Patti: And here's what I'm afraid of with money, or oh, I did meet my goal, but then I blew all my money on buying this thing instead when I knew I should have put it into a whatever savings account thing.
32:50
Patti: Like there's just it can grow and grow and grow, and and I think that's so important in that that period of time in that house, in my hippie house, was that I was made to feel kind of okay and feel seen, and all these things that I was holding for myself and feeling like, oh, I'm I'm fucked up and I'm you know broken and I am weird, and any of those differences in myself were celebrated.
33:18
Patti: And I was also able to see like all this other stuff in myself that wasn't so different than everybody else, and that's part of what made me feel okay about myself and made me feel safe and made me heal a bit and feel less broken and feel less alone ultimately.
33:34
Patti: If I can offer that to anybody else, like oh my god, that's amazing.
33:39
Patti: And so that's what I want is I want everyone to feel safe with me.
33:42
Patti: I want everyone to know that they're okay and whatever they're experiencing and feeling.
33:48
Patti: There are a hundred thousand, if not more, other people that are feeling and and experiencing the same thing.
33:54
Patti: And while what you experience is unique to you, others can understand it and you're not weird.
34:00
Patti: And and maybe you are weird, but in a great, beautiful, amazing, weird way, because we all are in that way.
34:07
Katelyn: You said like there's a hundred thousand other people who probably feel the same thing, but honestly, it only takes talking to one to make yourself feel better.
34:16
Patti: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
34:18
Patti: Exactly.
34:18
Patti: And so that's yeah, if I can sit here for the rest of my life and just help people feel okay about their experiences and who they are, and that they're not alone, like I'm good.
34:32
Patti: I'm like I'm at peace, you know.
34:34
Katelyn: I love that.
34:35
Katelyn: And I love I love that you utilize like your genius and tech to do that.
34:39
Katelyn: I just can't emphasize how much you've just been such a yeah, such a like help for me mentally, um, you know, because I'll I'll go all over the place.
34:48
Katelyn: And I think we we've had a conversation about how I'm a quick start and you're a little bit more methodical and better at like making sure we have a how versus a like, this is the what and let's do it now.
34:57
Katelyn: And you're like, but how will we do it now?
34:59
Patti: And yeah, and I will say that the bit with tech is, and that's one of the places that I feel like because it's so so easy for me and I just love it, it's so hard for so many people.
35:11
Patti: And people come and that's more of that, like they feel bad, they feel shameful, they feel like, well, I have a business, so I should know how to do these things.
35:17
Patti: And it's like, well, I can't go and film an amazing thing that you like the stories.
35:24
Patti: I can't pull stories out of people like you can.
35:26
Patti: So why should I expect you to build an email marketing funnel like I can or an online court?
35:31
Patti: Like, whatever the tech is.
35:33
Patti: You know what I mean?
35:34
Patti: People just assume that they should know tech because it's a part of things, but that's not true.
35:39
Katelyn: We really do.
35:39
Katelyn: We expect ourselves to know it from day one.
35:41
Katelyn: Starting a business, you're like, oh, I don't know how.
35:43
Katelyn: And it's like you don't have to know how.
35:45
Katelyn: It's it's step by step, it's task by task.
35:48
Katelyn: Yeah, I I think I'd really like to know how do you see um tech and storytelling interacting?
35:56
Patti: Oh, that's a good question.
35:59
Patti: Well, I think if you look at tech, and this I think is so when I when I picture technology, I actually picture it like a story.
36:09
Patti: I I picture, right, it's a series of steps that happens where for a lot of people it's a big jumble scary mess.
36:15
Patti: For me, I'm like, oh, cool.
36:16
Patti: So we want to do this thing.
36:17
Patti: So I see a start and I see, oh, this needs to flow into this, and then in order for this to happen, this needs to happen.
36:23
Patti: There's your arc.
36:24
Patti: There's like, like, I see this flow of things that need to happen when I picture tech.
36:30
Patti: And for me, it's a story.
36:32
Patti: Everybody's tech tells a story.
36:34
Patti: And so I think that if we can look at it from that perspective, it's a little less scary when we're able to look at it and break it down, right?
36:40
Patti: Stories are broken down, right?
36:42
Patti: We break them down into tiny little pieces.
36:45
Patti: My whole story today is such a small part of it, and I only told small pieces of it.
36:49
Patti: And I bumbled over my defining moment in my 20s because it was three plus years of it, and it's so hard to break that down.
36:56
Patti: And so it's the same way.
36:57
Patti: So it feels like this big overwhelming thing, but really it can get broken down into a tiny little thing, and you start with this step, and then you talk about the next piece that happened, and that's your next step in tech.
37:10
Patti: And so that's how I kind of picture it.
37:12
Patti: I see it as sort of a flow, and that's what I picture with storytelling.
37:16
Patti: And so I think when we look at it from that perspective, it can become a little less scary.
37:23
Katelyn: Okay, so Patti just cued me up for this so perfectly.
37:28
Katelyn: Patti and I, BizMagic and Calhoun Creative Consulting, team up to host a free storytelling workshop.
37:36
Katelyn: I said it, free storytelling workshop.
37:39
Katelyn: You do not want to miss this.
37:40
Katelyn: From clutter to clarity.
37:42
Katelyn: Organize your ideas and ignite your content.
37:45
Katelyn: And it's happening Thursday, April 10th from 1 to 2:15 p.m.
37:50
Katelyn: EST.
37:51
Katelyn: I know you've got a story worth sharing, and it is tricky, keeping it all organized, knowing where to even collect it from.
37:56
Katelyn: So this is for you.
37:58
Katelyn: This is for you.
37:58
Katelyn: If you are ready to share your story and you don't even know where to start, I'll be walking through my collect stage of my storytelling framework, how to gather things, where to gather them from, what to gather.
38:10
Katelyn: And then we're gonna tee it over to Patti, and she's gonna break down how to actually streamline your content workflow, organize said materials so they're there when you need them.
38:19
Katelyn: So when you are like, oh, I want to post today, you know where to go, into your systems, pick it out, post it, be loved by many.
38:27
Katelyn: It's gonna be a beautiful thing.
38:29
Katelyn: Plus, after that, after my section, after Patti's section, we're gonna wrap up with a live QA to get your burning questions answered.
38:37
Katelyn: So if you're tired of feeling scattered and want a storytelling system that actually works for you, please, please join us.
38:43
Katelyn: We're gonna have lots of fun.
38:44
Katelyn: Reserve your spot now.
38:46
Katelyn: The link is in the show notes.
38:47
Katelyn: I cannot wait to see you there.
38:49
Katelyn: I know Patti can't wait to see you there.
38:51
Katelyn: In the meantime, jump back to the podcast.
38:53
Katelyn: Listen to us banter, and we'll see you in person live April 10th from 1 to 2.15 p.m.
39:00
Katelyn: EST.
39:02
Katelyn: Now back to the episode.
39:03
Katelyn: Is there anything when it comes to your story that we didn't talk about today that you were like, cannot wait to share this with Katelyn and her people?
39:15
Patti: That's such a hard question because kind of that period of time, because I mean, there's so many endless, endless stories.
39:22
Patti: We had so much fun and we did so much crazy stuff.
39:26
Patti: And like that for me is still one of the most cherished periods of time in my life.
39:32
Patti: And I love that I got to talk about it because I don't, I don't talk about it very much because it involves drugs and it involves, you know, me cultural appropriation with dreading my hair and like, you know, stuff that early aughts.
39:45
Patti: And you're like, oh, maybe not.
39:48
Katelyn: You know, but I'm like so proud of you for like letting go and giving an F slash a fuck, you know, and like and it is one of those things where like depending how you were raised, like there's like a shoulds and shouldn't, shoulds and shouldn't't.
40:03
Katelyn: And then you went into like this early adulthood time where you're like, let's do the shouldn'ts, let's see what happens.
40:08
Katelyn: Yeah, and guess what?
40:09
Katelyn: You're still alive, right?
40:10
Katelyn: I'm not encouraging people to like go super hard to numb themselves, this and the other, but like to like play.
40:16
Katelyn: Like it's okay to play.
40:17
Katelyn: Yeah.
40:18
Patti: Well, and because, and this is what was defining about it, is that it wasn't a period where I was just, yes, I did drugs, yes, I did these things, but that's not all we did.
40:27
Patti: And when we did them, we actually sat in a fucking circle and talked about things we loved about each other and talked about things that had happened to us.
40:34
Patti: And like we really utilized, like, yes, we had times where we were, you know, doing the fun things and whatever, but there are a lot of times where we really, really utilized the power of them to go deep within ourselves and heal ourselves because of those bits.
40:48
Patti: It's not a story that I tell people openly very often out in work world, but it's not something I'm ashamed of or embarrassed of.
40:55
Patti: It's something I love about myself and I love about my life.
40:57
Patti: And so I'm really excited that I got to kind of talk about it.
41:01
Katelyn: And like every time I hear more about you, I feel inspired because it's not just about like Patti's buttoned up presenting that she's work patty and she'll crush your like tech systems and operations, blah, blah, blah.
41:12
Katelyn: Like it's not life, it is not clean cut.
41:15
Katelyn: Yeah, um, you're gonna work with real people because anybody you work with is real people, right?
41:19
Katelyn: But some people just don't feel safe to share all parts of themselves.
41:24
Katelyn: And like, that's why I love story because it digs in a little deeper to all parts of the people that we're sitting across from.
41:30
Katelyn: And and I love that you share those things, and it gives me a lot of permission to be a more full myself and and put that stuff out.
41:37
Katelyn: So it's really effing cool.
41:39
Patti: Yeah, yeah.
41:39
Patti: And I, anybody who ever is in my life in any capacity, whether it's work or friend, like share your whole selves, man, because I want to hear it all.
41:49
Katelyn: When it comes to building your community, telling stories, you kind of touched on this a second ago, but like who do you want to attract to your community?
41:57
Katelyn: Who are you like looking to connect with more?
42:00
Patti: Business-wise community.
42:02
Patti: Definitely people who are not afraid to take steps in their business and to grow and aren't afraid of things that they don't know and aren't afraid to hire people who can help them and their expertise, but really that are just excited about what they're doing and making a difference in the world, those people in that way, and then other parts of my life, just cool fucking people, because I always want new friends.
42:30
Patti: Um, it is hard to make friends as an adult.
42:32
Patti: So if you think I sound cool or fun or weird or interesting in any way, and you want to try to be my friend, you'll have to compete with people like Katelyn, which is hard because you know she's great.
42:46
Patti: I'm always down to meet new people.
42:48
Katelyn: Okay, so with that then, you know, we've we've invited them, but like where can they actually find you?
42:53
Patti: So my website is bizmagic.co, and that's just.co.
42:59
Patti: Instagram is at BizMagic Co.
43:02
Patti: And you can email me at patti p-t-t-i at bizmagic.co.
43:08
Patti: Patti, I obviously love you so much.
43:10
Patti: Thank you for your time today.
43:12
Katelyn: Love you so much.
43:13
Katelyn: Crafted Connections is lovingly produced by Calhoun Creative Consulting, a strategic storytelling firm dedicated to helping people and brands tell their stories in a way that resonates.
43:26
Katelyn: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and connect with us on Instagram at Crafted Connections Pod.
43:33
Katelyn: Keep creating, keep connecting, until we meet again.