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The Patrick Pretty Interview
Transcript
Here
is the transcript of Doug Hudiburg's June 2007 interview with Patrick
Pretty for DailyMarketingAce.com.
DOUG: Hi, everybody.
We’ve got a real treat for you today, and a real coup for
ourselves (chuckle).
Sitting with me is legendary model, poster boy, commercial spokesman,
and
branding trailblazer Patrick Pretty.
Patrick,
thanks so much for joining us. You know, you’re a
hard man to get a sit-down with (chuckle).
PP: Thanks for
having me, Doug; it’s my pleasure. And I know
I can be tough to get some time with these days. These are busy times
for me –
and both evolutionary and revolutionary times for business –
but great ones for
me and my associates.
DOUG: Let me ask you
about your new IM website in a moment.
First, I know a lot of people believe they know your story. But it
turns out
that very few people knew the real Patrick Pretty. So, who is the real Patrick Pretty? Give us the details.
PP: (chuckle)
It’s true. Almost no one knew the real Patrick
Pretty, what was going on inside my head. But learning these details is
what
can actually help my associates succeed online.
Sorry,
Doug. You were ready to ask me about my life and I
started talking again about IM. Force of habit lately –
I’m very passionate
about IM. And as my website says, I’m not just another pretty
face. I know IM
because I took the time to learn; I know Branding.
DOUG: It’s
easy to sense your passion for what you’re doing.
PP: And a true
passion it is. I’ve been very fortunate; I
understand that every time I look in a mirror, and, of course, my
blessings
don’t end there.
DOUG:
You’re very confident.
PP: (chuckle) I
wasn’t always; I actually suffered from a
lack of confidence, something that surprises people when I tell them.
It
was easy for people to believe my life was a bed of
roses, but that wasn’t the case at all. Truth is, I
didn’t feel entitled to my
own success, because so much of it happened by accident.
I’ve done a lot
of thinking about this and finally decided
to go public with the untold story about my secret life of self-doubt
and
shame.
DOUG: Well,
it’s clear you’re proud of what you’ve
overcome.
PP: One of the most
important things I’ve learned is that
you have to accept your gifts and run with them, and not stand around
apologizing for them and feeling empty on the inside. The worst use of
a
blessing is to apologize for it; the best use is to share it.
As I said earlier, I know
IM, and I know the importance of Branding;
I’ve been my own brand now for more than 40 years. I want to
share what I know
instead of keeping it bottled up inside of me.
DOUG: So,
you’re 48 now. What you’re telling me is that
you’ve finally learned to breathe on your own.
PP: That’s
exactly what I’m telling you.
DOUG: Shifting gears
for a moment, let me ask about your
early life. You overcame poverty as a child?
PP: I guess I did.
But I never felt poor; none of us did,
thanks to my mother. We didn’t have any money, but we were
rich in other ways.
My mother was hungry for knowledge her whole life. She read constantly,
everything she could lay her hands on.
DOUG: You tasted
success at an early age.
PP: (nodding) I did,
but it was a double-edged sword. My
first successes did not come, ironically, as a result of my
mother’s gift of
knowledge, but as a result of her gift of physical beauty. It made me
insecure.
You see, my mother
instilled a passion for learning and a solid
work ethic. And yet it was my face, my likeness, that made me a
household name.
My mother gave me these tools to succeed in life, and then success came
for
free. It was like having all-stars at every position and then winning
the
championship by forfeit. I felt like a cheat.
But
yes, early on my success made me very uncomfortable. I
hadn’t worked for it. One day I was a poor kid from Pennsylvania
– the next day I was, well,
Patrick Pretty. People were asking for my autograph before I even knew
how to
write my own name.
DOUG: Well,
I’m not sure if our listeners can hear all the
noise in the background; I’m not sure it will show up on the
tape of this
interview. But one thing my audience needs to know is that Patrick
travels with
an entourage.
Not a single member of
the entourage looks like a thug. Any
one of them easily could mix into the background without being noticed,
which I
suppose is the best way to run Security, the world being the way it is
these
days.
Patrick’s
Security Detail is enjoying a Buffet-Style lunch
in our Green Room. At
least 150 fans are
outside, waiting on the sidewalk. They must have seen the News Release
on our
website, which we posted only 15 minutes ago. It’s the only
way they could know
Patrick is here, live and in person, in our studio.
Patrick, I have to admit
that I’m really curious about this.
Why in the world do you prefer Buffet-Style food?
PP: I prefer Buffets
because that’s how my Mom ran things
back home in Siverly,
Pennsylvania.
She prepared the food with
great love and set it out in serving bowls on the kitchen table.
We’d each take
a serving and walk to the table in the dining
room. We actually talked
at the
dinner table, unlike the situation you see in many homes today.
My brother Joe
– all the Prettys are so proud of him –
carried on this tradition by opening his own Buffet-Style Restaurant.
So, when
I think Buffet, I think of home. If
you like Buffet food, you’re never too far from home.
DOUG: I always
wondered about that, because when I think
about ‘Poster Model,’
‘Buffet’ is not
the first thing that pops into my head. The first thing is ‘Starving Waif’
– they’re all so skinny. They all look so
under-nourished.
But your body is rock solid.
But now that
you’ve explained, it makes perfect sense. Buffet
means Home, all those beautiful
thoughts of family. I have to tell you that this is amazing. It really
does
make sense when you think about it.
PP: We’ve
been selling Family Values for more than 40 years,
Doug. That’s why we’ve been so upset about those
Tabloid headlines. They’re
lies, plain and simple. I was never in Rehab; I don’t even
drink. And I wasn’t
in Paris with Paris.
But I did have a problem
that was affecting my life,
something I should have dealt with years ago.
The
problem was that I didn’t accept myself for who I am,
didn’t feel deserving of the gifts and attention
I’d received. I was playing
myself, rather than being
myself.
The
Website – the ‘Not Just Another Pretty
Face’ Download –
has been my therapy. Learning to do HTML was a wonderful gift I gave
myself. Providing
some nice tools to help customers succeed also made me feel good.
And writing the sales
copy and the Introductions for a
couple of the eReports – well, it made me feel as though I
was contributing to
my own success, rather than being a passive recipient of it. I should
have done
it years ago, instead of relying on contractors.
The
most important thing I’ve learned is that you simply
feel better about yourself if you have a hand in the Creative process.
DOUG: So, as you
pointed out earlier, your life was not a
gravy train. You’ve had your share of heartache and
disappointment.
PP:
Don’t get me
wrong, Doug; I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything in
the world.
But I would choose to do
some things differently, especially
in the area of confronting this problem head-on. I am the only proof
you’ll
even need that money can’t buy happiness, can’t
feed your soul.
I’ve
been rich since I was five years old – and yet I had a
Sleep Disorder; I couldn’t calm down enough to get refreshing
sleep. These
things began to change when I began to believe I deserved my success,
that I
wasn’t just another pretty face.
I
call it my ‘Teachable Moment.’
DOUG: What
you’re telling me, it seems, is that it’s
important for people to accept themselves for who they are. And
it’s important
for them to develop a contribution mentality, to exercise their brains
and let
the creative juices flow, to let the work itself become the reward.
PP: That’s
exactly what I’m telling you, Doug. Couldn’t have
said it better myself.
DOUG: Let me shift
gears here for a moment. I recently read
that you’ve owned a typewriter since the age of 5. Is that
true? What was a
5-year-old doing with a typewriter?
PP: First of all,
the story is true. Words are a big
part of my life. My agents and manager gave me the typewriter to keep
me
occupied between photo sessions and TV appearances; they saw it as my
pacifier,
my Binky.
But I saw it for what it
was: A tool to document my
thoughts; I had Big thoughts, even as a child. I’ve written
down almost all of
them. There’s a HUGE record of my life.
In
the coming months, I’ll be sharing more and more of that
record with my fans and business associates. They’ve been
very good to me, and
I’d like to tell them these things; I’d like to
share my thoughts.
DOUG: So the
‘Not Just Another Pretty Face’ Download is just
the beginning? You’ll be adding more and more as time goes on?
PP: Well, I
won’t reveal the details of what I’m doing;
I’ve
been my own brand name for more than 40 years, and I know a lot about
business.
What I can say is that we’re going to add new meaning to the
phrase, ‘Do it the
Patrick Pretty way.’ And we plan on having a lot of fun doing
it. Business does
not have to be boring. Boring equals death, especially in a crowded
field like Internet
Marketing.
DOUG: Why IM,
Patrick? Why the Internet? Why not just radio
and TV and magazines?
PP: Why did you
arrive at work this morning in a car and not
on horseback or in a covered wagon, Doug? The worst bet ever made was
the bet
on the blacksmith.
DOUG: You know, I
have to tell you, Patrick. This is the
first time we’ve ever spoken. To be honest, I was expecting
you to be an empty
shell, the creation of a publicity machine.
PP: I
won’t lie to you, Doug. There was a time that was
true. But it made me feel empty inside. The truth is, I got sick of
feeling
empty inside. You can lie to plenty of people, but you can never lie to
yourself – at least not successfully.
Accepting my gift and not
being ashamed of it was the most
important thing I’ve ever done for myself. It freed me to be
myself, to share
my thoughts instead of keeping them inside of me. It’s
perfect freedom, Doug; I
recommend finding it. In fact, I wholeheartedly endorse finding it. I
was lost
until I found it.
DOUG: This story
about you is well-known, Patrick. But we
have some younger people in our audience. Tell them how you got on the
map.
PP: I’d
like to say it was a case of preparation merging
with opportunity, but the truth is that it was just blind luck.
I grew up in Siverly,
Pennsylvania.
Our home was about
a mile from Venturella’s Golden Dawn Grocery, the
neighborhood store. We had to
walk to that store because we didn’t have a car. And we
walked to that store
every day. It’s just what we did, and we loved doing it.
One day, when I was 4
years old, I walked to the store with
my Mom. She was putting things in her basket and I slipped away to
check out
the candy. While I was standing in the candy aisle, I caught a whiff of
something. It smelled sugary, like candy, but I could just tell it
wasn’t
candy.
I
followed my nose toward the source of the smell.
Grapes.
Perfectly ripened grapes. Purple grapes and green
grapes.
I stood barely at
eye-level with the grape table; I just
stood there in that sugar cloud, wanting to put one of those delicious
grapes
in my mouth. But even at 4 I knew that eating a grape without buying it
was
stealing.
So, I just stood there
and looked, my eyes wide and my mouth
hanging wide open.
And that’s when
I heard “click.”
I turned toward the
source of the click. That’s when I saw
Hedda Christiansen for the very first time. I even remember my first
thought: That lady has a camera.
Why’s she taking a
picture of me?
I was scared, and I
called out for my mother. She raced to
see what was wrong.
“Why are you
taking a picture of my son?” my mother asked
Hedda.
Hedda gave my Mom a very
warm smile – I’ll remember that
smile until I take my last breath – and then Hedda spoke the
words that changed
my life, the words that changed all of our lives.
“I’m
Hedda Christiansen,” she began slowly, warmly. “I
make
my living taking pictures.”
My
Mom was poor, if you look at the balance sheet only. And
yet she was rich in many other ways. She read constantly; I mean, my
Mom always
was feeding her mind, always had a book or magazine an arm’s
length away.
My Mom never graduated
from High School but knew who Hedda
Christiansen was, that she was one of the most celebrated photographers
in the
world.
“I’m
Catherine Pretty,” she said, extending her hand to
Hedda. “This is my son, Patrick.”
“Patrick,”
my Mom said to me, “I’d like to introduce you to
Miss Hedda Christiansen. She takes pictures for a living.”
Hedda
Christiansen dined with us that evening; she took her
food from the serving bowls on the kitchen table, walked into the
dining room,
and sat down with us at the dinner table.
She listened to us talk;
she helped my Mom with the dishes
without being asked, and then she sat on the wrap-around front porch
with my
Mom long into the night, long after my brothers and sisters and I went
to
sleep.
Two weeks later I became
the ‘child’s face’ of the U.S.
Grape Federation. Hedda did not send a check. By arrangement with my
mother,
she sent a painting crew. Those men painted our house; they restored
its
beauty.
And Hedda helped my Mom
establish a bank account and hire an
honest attorney. Less than a year later, we were rich in
the sense of money. But the truth is that we were rich long
before that because my mother made us rich by the simple way she chose
to live
her life.
DOUG: You know,
Patrick, I never get tired of hearing that
story. You call it luck, but if it is
luck, it’s very inspirational
luck.
PP: Doug, I know our
time is up. But please let me say this:
I never tire of telling that story. It’s not like the case
with the ‘Eagles,’ the
rock band, that I’ll tell that story again only when Hell
freezes over.
My fans, my business
associates, like that story; they’re my
audience, and I play what they like to hear. I do so with pride and I
plan
always to do so. It’s a good story because it’s a
true story, and my fans are
my partners in telling it. Thanks, Doug.
DOUG: Ladies and
Gentlemen, Patrick Pretty has just left the
building. The crowd has grown from 150 to 500 or more.
Seems they want catch a glimpse of the
‘Master of Eye Candy,’ and perhaps to hear a good
story. # # #
