#awinewith Jacinda Patty
MEET Jacinda, Founder of Command Your Presence
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:05):
Jacinda, welcome to Spark tv. Woo-hoo. So excited to have you here.
Jacinda Patty (00:12):
Thank you. Thank you. Yes.
Danielle Lewis (00:13):
No, let's start out by telling everyone who you are and what you do.
Jacinda Patty (00:18):
Okay. Oh, my name is Jacinda Paddy, and I'm a creative at Heart Gone Coach. I'm on a mission to take my 25 plus years of experience producing, dancing, singing, acting, puppeteering, circus, performing, and anything else that I threw in the mix there for 25 years. And using all of that, those skills and those lessons that I learned on the road and on the stage, and helping professionals improve their performance and their performance in their business. So as you can tell, I'm so excited. I just want to bridge that gap between, you are in a corporate space and you do have to be professional, but there is a way to do it and be yourself. And there are techniques that professional actors and actresses use that I want to help you with. Even clowns.
Danielle Lewis (01:33):
I love it so much, and it's just, what it just sparked in me is so many business owners I talk to are like, I don't want to show up. I don't want to be on camera. I don't want to give that presentation. I don't want to do the thing that puts me out there. And I just feel like this is the bridging of the gap that you're talking about.
Jacinda Patty (01:53):
Well, I'm trying to explain to people and coach people into finding how they're comfortable to do it, because I'm not asking you to wear a pink top and have crazy curly hair. That's me. I've been doing that my whole life. But we find and we take the time to find what it is for you. What is your comfort and how do you want to show up and then work from there. And I think people are trying in the business world to, I don't know, put a fancy jacket on or
(02:33):
Be who they think they need to be to achieve storytelling and narratives and connection. Where in actual fact, I just want you to be you, and I want to help you find what your voice is and who you are so that you can do it. And it's interesting when someone puts a mirror up to you. I mean, I've had it done to me a thousand times over, so that's why I'm really good at the feeling. But yeah, it's almost taking a step out of your business, remembering what you created and why you created it, and then actually making sure that that's the message that's getting across. Because sometimes people are six years into a business and they're like, oh, I've been doing this sales pitch for six years. Do you remember what you were pitching? So are you telling people who and what you are? And sharing with them a bit about you so that it can be humanized. I think my step into business I properly was through a tech startup company that my brother owned, and they put a professional clown in the front of sales.
Danielle Lewis (04:09):
Yes,
Jacinda Patty (04:10):
I love it. So it was like, how can I do this professional work, but my way and through coaching him into meetings, into pitches, into sales calls, this, that, whatnot. It was, I always just brought this really different aspect to the team conversations, which was where this business sparked because it was an angle people weren't looking at in the business world. So yeah, it's interesting.
Danielle Lewis (04:50):
I think it's amazing. Let's start, before we get into that, let's start back at how this began or, well, the career beforehand. You talk about being a professional clown. I want to explore that and being an actress, a dancer, talk to me about the career before this phase of business.
Jacinda Patty (05:11):
No worries. I think, how do you summarize? Do you summarize? I'm struggling. Well, I think it comes down to quite a moment in my life was when I saw Nikki Webster fly across the stadium in the Sydney Olympics. I think I was eight years old,
(05:36):
And I thought, I want to affect audiences like this. This is amazing. This is magical. Imagine if you could take all these thousands of people, millions of people across the world on journeys and discoveries and stories. So combine that with growing up, listening to my parents and my grandparents' stories. So both my grandparents' sides of the family came over on boats from Egypt and from Greece. So I grew up with a story, and my story didn't start in Australia, and I think that really resonated with me as an artist. And forever, I was in a dance studio, I tell you, if you want your daughter to stay out of trouble, put her in 20 hours of dancing a week, because I didn't even know what a boy was or didn't care until I was 19.
(06:47):
So in reflection, I realized I just loved the people. I loved being around people. I loved being physical. That's all I knew through, and I loved being on stage, and I loved the applause, and I loved all of that. So straight out of school, I became a dancer. I did a professional performing arts course. That wasn't enough because of this desire to affect audiences. As that 8-year-old, I decided I wanted to affect audiences with stories and the way I listened to my stories, my family history. I've always wanted to share those stories more. And so that led me to acting school where I did screen acting. And 12 years ago, they didn't want a bubbly, curly, crazy little mess. They wanted quite mundane and plain run in the mill casting. So I got itchy feet. I still wanted that applause, and I wanted to be doing and traveling.
(07:57):
And when I wasn't performing, I was traveling. And it was a fine line between both, and I did both sometimes together, but mostly I performed. I worked my ass off in crazy jobs to then be able to travel the world and visit the countries and the cultures that I'd heard my grandparents talk about. So I tried it as a dancer, did the acting. I also got bored auditioning, so I became a personal trainer because I felt dumb. So I became a personal trainer and to supplement the income whilst being an artist. And it landed being a dinosaur puppet for three years, traveling around traveling, yeah, traveling around Australia, performing some of the most rural parts of Australia in the middle of Charville, in the middle of Queensland, in Tambo, it eyeopening. We took theater to kids that had never seen theater before, and it was such a fun, interactive show. It was great. It was kind of my introduction to clowning and comedy. So I was doing that. I was dance teaching and personal training when I was in Sydney. I was going on holidays. I was immersing in culture, and I didn't want to do both. So I paused and I paused my career. I paused the work, and I packed my backpack and went traveling for two years by myself
(09:56):
Not working. Now that in hindsight is an interesting thought process to take two hours, two years out of your career. I definitely feel like there's a bit of a setback there, but I am so much richer for that
Danielle Lewis (10:14):
Experience, the life experience, never underrate that, never overrate that, whatever I'm trying to say.
Jacinda Patty (10:22):
And as a 19-year-old in an acting course, they're like, you need to get experience at 19. I didn't really hate any. Well, that's a lie. But I had only had a couple of life experiences that I come from a loving family. I love my friends. I'm a people per, I didn't have angst that they told me I needed to have as an actor. So that pissed me off as well. So that led me on a different path. It didn't sit well.
(10:57):
So fast forward two years, 21 countries, amazing, couldn't recommend it enough to jump on a plane and don't even think came back to Australia and got into circus school because at 28 I thought, well, if I'm going to do something, and if I didn't feel like I was an artist because I'd been traveling for two years, my identity was a traveler, so I had to do something that took me back into my art. So I joined circus school at 28, which was an interesting choice, option and experience. But from that course, I found comedy. I found clowning and physical theater, which was a step away from my jazz hands and the serious acting. And it was this fusion of all these things that I possessed had as a performer. So I immersed myself in the circus scene in Melbourne. I found the clowning community and started to understand comedy, standup comedy. So sat there and I tried to get into the bachelor degree of circus, which would've been three years. But what do you know another institution didn't want? What
Danielle Lewis (12:35):
The hell?
Jacinda Patty (12:38):
It's a sign. Look, NIDA didn't want me. Nika didn't want me. It's fine, it's fine. But it's sparked my creative producing. And at that point, I made a decision to give it all or walk away. And I went, right, you don't want me, I'm sick of hearing. I don't fit. I don't fit in the mundane acting. I don't fit. I'm too short for the dance industry. But they failed to tell me that when I was growing up, I didn't know there was a circus industry until I was 28, which my musclely ass body is suited for. But then that meant I had to do so much training that I just was not prepared to do as off the back of a two year holiday. And I decided to produce.
Danielle Lewis (13:37):
So
Jacinda Patty (13:37):
Why not produce a four woman show called Boxed in Sideways?
Danielle Lewis (13:42):
I love
Jacinda Patty (13:42):
It. Too small, too big, too tall, too short, never fit, all the things. It was my feminist dream.
Danielle Lewis (13:54):
It's the big up yours to
Jacinda Patty (13:55):
Everybody. It was. And the biggest thing was, can I do it? It actually, it didn't have anything. Yes, it was the big up yours, but it was a proof to myself.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
I love
Jacinda Patty (14:09):
That these stories and this dream had to come out because until that point, I didn't feel heard. I didn't feel seen, and I didn't feel understood because nobody knew what was going on in my head. Yeah, they knew Jacinda was full of energy, joyful, creative, and does whatever she wants, and jumps on a plane and travels for two years and tours through the middle of Australia and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But nobody knew what was in my head as an artist or as a producer. And for me, it was quite liberating for people to see and experience my art and for me to watch them actually go on a journey and that I could do the thing that I wanted to do as an 8-year-old could take people on that journey. And it was a beautiful show. Absolutely beautiful. And I love it.
Danielle Lewis (15:09):
I just love that. Another thing I hear women in business talk about is being rejected. And why don't people ask me to go to speak at that event? Or Why don't I get asked on that podcast? Or why not? And I'm like, you, maybe you don't need permission from other people. Maybe you need to give permission to yourself and just do it Anyway,
Jacinda Patty (15:36):
It is a bit of that.
Danielle Lewis (15:38):
I love it. I
Jacinda Patty (15:39):
Love it. It was a rude shock that it was all happening internally, and it's a testament to this business. People are like, how are you here? I'm like, because I got girlfriends from year seven, and they are still listening to my lectures. But with those women who have kept me around for 20 years, years, 18 years, and they're still huffy to listen to a rant from Jacinda Patty, and geez, I can start getting paid for these rants.
Danielle Lewis (16:19):
I wish I wanted. Pay me for my rants. Maybe that's what this podcast is. Who knows?
Jacinda Patty (16:24):
But yeah, but you are right. And it wasn't that I probably wasn't in the spaces or in the place where I wanted to be. So becoming a producer really took me to a new space and a new world where I could sit. I very quickly realized, how the hell do I pay for artists? And decided that was the too hard basket. Once we did a lot of in-kind work, and I fronted a lot of the money for that production. I fronted all the money for that production, but they were friends, and I was like, this isn't right. I'm not paying them. Even though they got, we were all at a point in circus school coming out of it, different things. So it was okay. They were learning, they were getting something out of it.
Danielle Lewis (17:22):
But
Jacinda Patty (17:23):
I just was like, I don't even know how to start. I don't want to dive into how do I pay artists? So I was like, great, I'll do solo shows. And it still was this thing because I didn't have a speaking role in Boxed in Sideways. I was the journey creator. I was the audience. Wrangler Wrangler. I took them on a journey. I created their experience, but I hadn't used my voice.
(18:02):
So for me, my first one, woman show safety banana. In hindsight, I feel like I was just yelling at the audience, listen to me. I have stuff to say. It's very important. Listen, listen, listen. It's entertaining. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's what that show was. It was entertaining. It was funny. It was the tales of a solo female traveling around the world finding and losing love. And it was fun. I roller skated, I danced, I act. I had audience participation. I put what I wanted. Again, I told my stories. I stood on stage as a female talking about men, and I actually did a competition and won a physical theater circus competition. And one of the adjudicators said, you might want to think about what you're doing. You are standing on stage talking about men. And to which I responded, is that a question? Because that's exactly what I'm doing. I made a decision as a solo physical performer that I was never going to take my clothes off. I wasn't going to get my oohs and ahs through nudity, but I was going to use my voice, my stories to shock people. And hey, that's a success in my book. If it made her uncomfortable, it made her think, then great.
Danielle Lewis (19:57):
And isn't that interesting? The idea of making people uncomfortable? I think that's, so many people play it safe and wonder why they don't impact people. We've got to have opinions. We do have to use our voice. We do have to shock and awe a little bit sometimes, because otherwise we're just same. Same.
Jacinda Patty (20:23):
And that's, that's where the correlation between what I did as a performer as such, gravity in business, as I said, you don't have to be a roller skating, banana eating comedian, but I was just proving, not proving a point, but I was just telling a story I went on to do. I didn't believe that I could affect audiences until I did my third show. Here we are with the quality control aspect, not believing it. The perfectionist theist in me had to spend another six months post Covid locked herself in a room for six months and isolated herself to write another show. And that's where Tinder, Cindy came to Light
Danielle Lewis (21:21):
Tinder.
Jacinda Patty (21:22):
Cindy, what? That's the best name ever, Cindy. So Cindy is my alter ego. And who you see today is Jacinda and everything. The new business is Jacinda Patty.
(21:35):
But I guess essentially to find this voice and to make this change in my career, I needed a safety net. And my safety net was Cindy. It was this alter ego that is an exaggeration of the female mind. And under her, I felt safe and comfortable to tell my stories. So Tinder, Cindy was a second version, a second. What's the word in the series of Cindy? So Cindy came back from traveling around the world finding and losing love, and she moved in with her Greek grandmother. So for the first time, I was telling my family stories, which is what 8-year-old me wanted to do. Now, I set out to make it a show about Tinder, but I found a more poignant meaning, which was we have grandmothers and mothers who are women. So my show showcased a young woman living with her grandmother as women, and I played a split character. I played both characters, which I thought I had to go to NIDA to achieve. I thought I had to go to NIDA to learn. That was a dream of mine. I always wanted, I thought, if I'm to be an actor, I need to be able to switch characters. I was like, fuck it, I'll just put it in my show. Because when you run your business, when you run your show, you get to do what you want. And I
Danielle Lewis (23:27):
Was learning, my God, I love how you just said if you want to run your own business, run your own show. It's like, oh, I love that. You can design it exactly how you want to. It is literally your choice to design your business and your life around whoever you want to be. Oh my God, I love that you just said that. Keep going. Sorry.
Jacinda Patty (23:53):
No, this hasn't been easy. I joined Circus school in 2017. I decided to be a producer in 2018. Since 2018, there was a online personal training business called Cindy Schwetz. In the middle of all of that, Hey, COVID needed Thanks,
Danielle Lewis (24:31):
COVID,
Jacinda Patty (24:32):
Thanks for that little business, needed a thing. But that's where I learned all my business. And then able to bridge the gap between, for me personally, bridge the gap between what the producer, I had, pr, sales, I was getting myself on podcasts on getting the A, B, C to reply. To me, that was just little old producer, me behind a laptop, sending an email, having the audacity to do it, to start believing in herself. So after Tinder, Cindy, and receiving that standing ovation in Newcastle and producing a one woman show across three festivals and touring it to Newcastle, Melbourne and Sydney Fringe, where I would say my biggest achievement has been selling out Sydney Fringe Festival and winning an emerging producer award.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Wow.
Jacinda Patty (25:30):
Schneider Emerging Producer Award. I did it.
Danielle Lewis (25:36):
Absolutely.
Jacinda Patty (25:37):
I did it. But 300 people on seats for that whole season was not enough people. And the funniest thing happened on Show five in Sydney. I realized I didn't need the applause anymore, and this shocked fucking shit out of me. I was like, what does this mean?
Danielle Lewis (26:08):
Yeah, you're like, well, if I don't need this, if I've done this, what now? Who am I now?
Jacinda Patty (26:12):
Who does me? And essentially, I had to either commit to doing theater, the festival scene, and that's taking a show evolving, a shows committing. And I just went, that is way too much effort for an round of applause. And a maybe within that time, I'd done my show to two people, in some instances, a full 45 minute show to two people.
Danielle Lewis (26:45):
Wow.
Jacinda Patty (26:47):
I'd done it having projectile vomited. My lighting guy told me not to eat the banana. I decided to eat the banana. I had to run off stage, throw the banana up, come back on my tap shoe broke. I picked my tap shoe up, started bleeding, finished the show holding back more projectile, vomit, tapping the last number out, holding my hand up that was bleeding. And then coming back for my bow, waiting for the audience to leave, and then literally collapsing,
Danielle Lewis (27:26):
Oh my God, this sounds like a business owner to me of a business owner.
Jacinda Patty (27:37):
So yeah, as I said, there's a lot correlations. Wow, that's full on. My friend is my witness. She did not know what to do when I was projectile vomiting before we had to get in the taxi to be at the venue on time. And whenever I sent her a message and I'm scared, what am I doing? She goes, you did a 45 minute show, projectile, vomiting, bleeding, about to fall over. You can do anything.
Danielle Lewis (28:11):
You are fine. This is nothing. That was
Jacinda Patty (28:14):
Hard. This is easy. Oh my God, that's hilarious. So yeah, it was those different things that shaped me into the business woman that I am today. And it's knowing that so many people were affected by my third story, I realized that I actually enjoy the producing the stories side of things. Actually, I just enjoy the production.
(28:53):
The, is my lighting guy going to cancel on me 24 hours before my sold out season? Yes. Is the second lighting person I get the day before my sold out season going to stay with me? No. Did I need to find a third lighting person the day of my opening night? Oh my God. And honestly, I think my mom slapped me in the face when that was happening. She was like, fix it. You got this. I was like, do. I was like, I need some love now. She's like, you haven't done all this work to let this situation hold you back. And that brings me to my brain's trust. And the reason why, as a solo producer and a solo business owner, I can do what I've done is because I have an amazing group of women and men who support me, listen to me, talk to me, help me guide me, and I lean on them. And you
(30:11):
Have to be willing to lean on people to grow. So I think it's why I reached out to you. I was like, help. I'm lonely in this adventure. I need to know that it's going to be okay. Yeah. So it's all those, I've realized I liked the bitsy piecey bit. So why not create a business where I can empower others to tell their story. I can help them find their voice, refine their message, speak their narrative, and teach them from my 25 years of tricks, what works for them. I don't have a one fit program. I have a bag of tricks that I will keep pulling out of until we find what works for them. Because that's what I've done. I've had the audacity to do it myself, and I really just want to make it easier for people.
Danielle Lewis (31:30):
I think it's incredible. And I'm walking away from this conversation going, I want to be the producer of my own life and business. I want to create this story that I'm so proud to tell you have literally inspired me today. I feel so excited about thinking about it in that way.
Jacinda Patty (31:56):
As I said, it's bridging that gap. And it's not tell your story. It's not speak better. It's figure out what the meaning is behind
Danielle Lewis (32:11):
It.
Jacinda Patty (32:13):
Figure out. Go back. I do. I go back to their why, their who they are, what they want. It's my ridiculous, which is probably my worst enemy. At the same time, my empathy. And because I've put stages, I've put shows on in tennis courts in the desert to 10 children, and I've performed on stages in Dubai, and I've done a 45 minute show to two people. I've also performed to thousands of people at Rugby Cup opening ceremonies. And if you don't have the experience, you need to start giving yourself the experience. You need to start with what you have. It's not about jumping all over the place. It's about being true to who you are.
Danielle Lewis (33:22):
And I love the idea of giving ourselves permission to do it.
Jacinda Patty (33:27):
Audacity is the word. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (33:30):
Everyone needs more audacity today. Everyone needs more audacity. Oh my God, you're incredible.
Jacinda Patty (33:40):
It. Last year, essentially, I had an identity crisis. I was like, I don't want to be a performer. What? I wanted to go to Hollywood, but Hollywood looks a bit different now. Hollywood didn't necessarily mean physically la. It was maybe an impact scale of how I wanted to affect people.
(34:18):
But last year I was, I'd experienced this. I don't need the applause. What do I do without the applause? Where's the reward? Oh my God. Yeah. So I mean, I decided to launch a podcast. That's how I did. But not even, you don't get the applause in a podcast. You dunno who's listening. You don't. So it was one step away, but I knew I wanted to coach. And being a dance teacher, being a child entertainer, personal trainer, it's all about helping people push past their comfort zones. And it was like, well, how do I combine that? Because I like doing that, but with art, my soul. And I just got sick of it. I was like, I want to teach people to walk into a room like Jacinda Patty. How do I do that?
Danielle Lewis (35:23):
We are all channeling Jacinda Patty today.
Jacinda Patty (35:27):
I hope so. Channel your audacity. Look, I like to think that I can. My brother paid me the biggest compliment the other week. He said, you were the only person I know that can be put into any situation and connect. And with CEOs, producers, artists, yogis, kids, some people say that I'm on their level. I can speak to them. They're all from anything. That's fine. But I was like, well, I need to use these skills. How do I use these skills? And I guess that's in business. Stick to your strengths. Be aware of your weaknesses. Work through them, and don't let them stop you from doing things. But be aware of your strengths. And yeah, I mean, I could talk to you for days about this.
Danielle Lewis (36:37):
Oh my God. And tell me about it. And that is a great segue because we do need to wrap this podcast. I know. I'll just sit here and be, oh my God, I'm going to be the producer of my own show. I'm channeling this. I'm getting audacity. I'm leaving this inspired. But I do love to wrap our podcast on one last piece of advice for women in business. So reflecting on, oh my God, all of the things, that whole journey, would there be a piece of advice you would give to a woman who is on her business journey right now? Lemme
Jacinda Patty (37:12):
Think. Let me think.
Danielle Lewis (37:14):
If not, believe
Jacinda Patty (37:15):
It or not, and be speech. It's just the perfectionist in me. Something I say when I teach choreography, there comes a point where you can learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn. And there comes a point, and I say this to my clients as well, in personal training, there is a point where you need to not think. And as a dancer and as a performer, you need to trust and you need to create systems that allow you to trust that you have done every single thing that you can. And there comes a point where you just need to not think and do, it's essentially what command your presence, my new business is. It's helping people find those strategies and those preparation techniques and things like that so that they can get to this point. Just don't think, believe, and do it. And I think the audacity, I've had to do that over and over again. Believe in the first show. Believe I can be a producer, believe I can be a puppeteer, believe I can be a roller skater, believe I can be a professional salsa dancer, believe that I can do another one-Woman show. Believe that I can have an online personal training business, believe that I can knock on the door of the corporate world. Trust in yourself. And there comes a point where you just have to do,
Danielle Lewis (39:21):
You are absolutely incredible. Jacinda, thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. I know everyone in the Spark community will have just taken that on board and will bring the belief, the audacity, all of the channeling of Jacinda into their business life today. So thank you so much.
Jacinda Patty (39:45):
Thank you for having me. It has been a pleasure. I.
✨ Thank you to IP Australia for supporting the SPARK podcast and women in business ✨
