In her debut episode, marketing consultant and lifelong entrepreneur Patricia Muellen kicks off her unfiltered new podcast, “Built This Way” a brutally honest, hilarious, and heartfelt look at life, business, and all the messy lessons in between. From selling a company for $10 to surviving multiple surgeries and still building a thriving business, Patricia proves that failure, humor, and authenticity are the real keys to success. Funny. Raw. Relatable. If you’ve ever asked yourself “what the hell am I doing?” — this show’s for you.
Patricia shares her story of building a marketing company, P. Muellen & Associates, after years of varied experiences: politics, staffing, chamber of commerce leadership, and entrepreneurship. Along the way, she’s made big mistakes (like selling a staffing company for $10), survived major health battles (fertility issues, double hip replacements, and upcoming hysterectomy), and navigated tough personal transitions with humor and grit.
Patricia reflects on:
The freedom and stress of solopreneurship — choosing risk over comfort.
The support of her husband, who gave up his own dreams to help her pursue hers.
The evolution of her confidence, from people-pleasing in her 20s to being fully unapologetic in her 40s.
How failure and pain have shaped her success, giving her empathy and drive to help others through their own challenges.
The importance of authenticity, both in business and life — being real, swearing when needed, and refusing to hide behind perfection.
She also tells wild stories from her entrepreneurial past: almost buying a winery, a gun range, and even a speedboat company — all part of her “damn I tried” philosophy.
Business: [P. Muellen & Associates] www.pmuellenandassociates.com
Instagram: @patriciamuellen
Want to be on the show? Reach out and share your story.
Well, hi, Patricia here. And this is the first show. What the fuck am I doing? Now I promise we're gonna have a good time. I have been doing all sorts of awesome and fumbly, stupid mistakes in business that turned out to also be awesome for 20 something years now, which like ages the shit out of me, but it's okay because I'm here to tell you, violating all rights of HIPAA that.
I'm gonna be 43 years old really quickly soon here. And I've had things that have experienced that probably 60 something year olds should have gone through with the heart and the humor of probably a 16 year old. So that's what you're gonna kind of expect of the show. I keep it real, not just because I'm like, hey, I'm here to swear and say a bunch of things, it's just because I really just don't know any other freaking way to be. Life is too freaking short, right?
And I'm saying for just to be nice, because I've got some minister friends out there and I don't want them like, Jesus, Lord, help me. I don't want, I want to support her, but, you know, just life keeps fucking happening. And then, know what? The thing that I learned about meeting all these people too on my journey is that life happens to everybody, not just me. We all think that it's like us, you know, it's like, oh, it's just me.
I'm going, nobody understands, nobody gets it, nobody gets me. Well, I'm here to tell you that nobody's been through your exact journey. Nobody's been through the exact thing that you've been through. I guarantee it. There's no carbon copy of you. It's like there's no carbon copy of me. So the show's not necessarily about me, so to speak. I would say that it's about our experiences together. Because if we're not talking about this shit, how do we know that it's real? That's how I feel about it.
And you know, as far as business goes, I'm a marketing consultant that does a lot of execution because that's what people want to pay me to do. Right. And ⁓ I want people to know exactly who I am before they hire me. I want them to know my values and that I'm a crazy ass married 40 something year old passionate as hell, a genius in my field, might I?
The super fucking funny that swears a lot. Sorry about that again, but I'm not. And that ⁓ I'm just here to make my impact on this world and help as many people as possible. And that's why the show, like why now? Life keeps happening. Like I'm not even talking about like, ⁓ somebody, know, ⁓ something happened or you change a job or you move across the United States or.
you know, third of your family dies, which actually happened to be in the last couple of years. But, you know, I mean, just with the health stuff, I am a solopreneur. And I don't know if you know what that means, but it basically means that you're an entrepreneur. You were one of those risky motherfuckers that decided I'm going to just go and do my own thing. And it was probably because you worked for somebody awful. Right. We all had that terrible boss or those terrible experiences, those terrible companies that we
really needed it because we don't go to work every single day because it's just so fun. So I'm not saying become an entrepreneur because you want to have fun every day. can tell you that I'm probably more stressed out now than I have been in any other job. But man, am I happy. Because every single thing that happens, I get to control in some way and not necessarily control it. like, I get to
have a part in the decision making process. And I always felt in my employment experiences, as much as I loved my bosses and some of them are out there and I get along with them fondly and the other ones really, really hate me. ⁓ But I was ⁓ more times than not smarter than the people that I worked for. And that sucks. ⁓ And a lot of those as entrepreneurs finally, when something happens, probably bad, we get fed up.
and we go out and we do this really risky thing. ⁓ The ones that of us are super lucky are married and we've got this spouse that knows that they married this crazy person and they support them. And then that's my gig, right? So I had to have an awesome husband who decided that he was gonna give up in his dream and go back into manufacturing because we were sick of being broke. And when I married him, he was a student going into the nuclear field and then we were gonna open a winery. And I was like, so exciting. And... ⁓
Yeah, that didn't happen. Like, none that happened. Decided to go back in manufacturing, which he incidentally hates, but he's really good at it. And so he got to start and do that again. And I got to start my business, not because I wanted to, because I felt like I was forced to, but I had him to support me through it. And not everybody gets that, you know, starting a business without some sort of income is damn near impossible today. So if you're one of those people that did the jump.
and you made it, congratulations, you're here. And I would love to have you be a part of the show, listen to the show, come be a guest on my show sometimes because I really wanna share those experiences with you and I wanna hear about them. The other thing that happens is all the health shit. Back in 2018, I had a procedure over fertility things and I was working during the time and if you know me personally, that ended poorly.
really poorly. Maybe that'll be a podcast episode someday that will get me sued. Because I end up suing someone over it, which was freaking insane. And that actually affected my husband and it landed us in a whole other state because it affected his career. And it completely changed our paths. like, back when it happened, I was I have cursed everything in the situation, but it turned out to be this huge blessing. And then a couple of years later, I found out that I had to have not one, two full
hip replacements. I already went through the biggest stuff in fertility, I thought, at the time. And then I had to choose that. What do you choose? Walking or hip, or baby? Well, walking, which I'm grateful for. ⁓ So like two years later, two more surgeries. Woohoo, awesome. But during all this stuff, like,
I just started a business several years before. I started my marketing company in 2019. I can't just stop. So, know, on a walker, learning how to walk twice.
It was a lot, but I still had to grow the business. All the mistakes that I made during that time and the lessons that I learned, one of the biggest ones is I gotta start getting help around me and not doing everything myself and using better tools. Because I wasn't doing that at the time and it bit me in the ass. Now I'm facing another thing. I had something last year. Now this next month I'm getting a hysterectomy.
And if you're in your forties and you've not had kids and you get the pain of that. And that doesn't affect just me, that affects my husband too.
So I'm back in the mode, picking up, trying to get the business going. But Jesus Christ, so what a great time to start a podcast. I'm so glad you're here.
I'm really, really glad you're here because the thing is is that I don't necessarily want to go through all this stuff alone either. And I know that there are other women, other men out there, other people that are going through their own shit too.
They need to hear these things also just so that they know like keep going. Keep doing the thing. Keep doing the risky stuff. Life is not going to stop. We're going to have to and I know and I'm not just here to talk about all the wins like I would say that my company I'm very proud of it. I was so proud when I started I tattooed the damn logo on my shoulder. And it's a Dahlia and it's like says all the values and things and why I got my business started but like.
Dang, can you imagine looking in the mirror every single day naked and knowing like you can't quit your business? Because it's like a constant failure if you do that. So I'm not gonna do that. Seven years now, I'm pretty damn proud. It's a Pemul and Associates. It is a marketing company and I help people with all things, internet and things. And so the businesses that I work with are like all types, all types. And they got some awesome stories.
the reason also why now we keep talking about this stuff and I have these zoom calls with people and then we have these like crazy conversations they go from marketing things and while they need to all the other things that are going on in their lives in their business whether it's like stuff with their employees or with vendors or with clients or customers of their own and I'm like damn why aren't we recording this because other people could use this and they always say yeah yeah so you know what I did
I mean, a lot of those people, my guest list. And you get to hear that too. Because I really don't think it's gonna be a waste of your time. think you're gonna love, love it, laugh at it, cry at some of the things. Hell, might even pick up the phone or pick up the, you know, type us on email and say, hey, I gotta share my story with you too. But, you know, I really believe in everything can't really necessarily be for nothing.
Not everything happens for a reason. That drives me freaking crazy. It always has. But the experiences that we do go through, we can use them to help others. We can learn from them so that we don't do them again. Right? So this is like our now history in live action. Some of my failures, just in case you're wondering, is I sold a company, a staffing company, for $10 once. And it like staffed the senior PGA championship. Like it wasn't a small staffing company.
But I was young and didn't necessarily want to get up at 3 a.m. because somebody was stupid and hit something with a forklift and had to get a drug test. my mother was going through breast cancer. I was getting ready to get married and something had to give. One of the lessons that I learned is that you can't always do everything to be happy. And I was starting a new career. I was going to be a new Chamber of Commerce director. like that was meant to let go, but ended up selling the company for $10. And you know,
I still have that check somewhere. Like the donors are probably pissed. think the company's still running. ⁓ one of the first logos that I've actually ever made, I think they're still using it. And, yeah, I never cashed their check because fuck them. But anyways, just kidding, but not really. And, ⁓ let's see, ⁓ if you ever opened a business with family, tried to do that too poorly because it didn't happen. mean, in fact, my husband and I went into business with his father.
tried to open a winery, built and planted a vineyard. Like I actually had fish guts and all those vines and all that stuff. This was before we were engaged. I'm like, what am I doing? And then he gave me a ring. I was like, great investment. ⁓ But they got into a big old fight. Thank God, before we signed a financing agreement to build a tasting room. But now if you're in Baroda, Michigan, there is a beautiful winery.
⁓ Right there, and I could tell you it's not ours, but it's right across the street. So I don't think that that was a terrible idea. Let's see, I almost bought a gun range once. A 25,000 square foot beast, ⁓ Southwest Michigan. I actually got an FBI trainer from the local college who agreed to put a law enforcement training facility in there. Because where I lived, there wasn't like a really great place for women.
to safely shoot. And this place was kind of the only place, but it was like, had kind of like a sexist thing theme going. And Mondays were their bullseye babes. And incidentally, that's where I bonded with the previous chamber president that hired me to become the next chamber director. We would just shoot on Mondays and I became her buddy. And then she was like, hey, you should come work for me. And then asked, but like, isn't that wild? And my whole entire life has been not what you know, it's who you know and how you use what you know. But yeah, same thing. So almost bought that place.
and had all the things, wore a thin blue line dress in front of 19 police chief, know, municipality chiefs. And they all approved my plan. I told them what we were going to do. They were so excited, went to the bank. They're like, you're not crazy. You have to put up all of your stuff. If you ever want to buy a business and you want to do something like an SBO loan or whatever they want to know that you're going to put everything of yours on the line, even if you have cash to put down. So you're getting ready to literally tie your home and everything else to it. And right before
we signed the deal, the seller changed the deal on my husband and I. And we walked out and we moved like 30 days later and COVID hit.
I almost bought a speedboat manufacturing company. That wasn't even that long ago. I know, fucking crazy. It just sounds so nuts. Yeah, if my in-laws heard this, they'd be like, what?
I have been wanting to buy a business. I want to get my husband out of manufacturing. And you know, he's so smart. And with my marketing and everything, I've been like, someone's going to hear this and be like, my God, I need to sell her business to write. You need to get a hold of me and sell me a freaking business. And I didn't care what it was. Like, honestly, if he would have told me, Patricia, I want to make toilets. I've been like, let's be the porcelain king and queen. I don't care. You know, like, let's go make toilets, ⁓
he we found a company instead and you know, and was joking and I was like, Hey, look at this people manufacturing company. And he was like, I know this company and next thing I know, ⁓ the owner of the company is calling me like an hour later after I emailed him just like as a joke or not even a joke. It was like, here's a whim. And then I'm in Florida meeting with the owner of this company and spending a whole weekend on the boats and like doing all this stuff and everything and then just
We couldn't figure out a good price on it. So I'm not meant to build speed boats apparently. Or, you know, I guess sell guns or alcohol. I'm actually seeing like a trend. I don't know if anybody else notices this. It's like really fast things, alcohol, guns, you know. The FTA is gonna be like, Come after her.
But everything's legal now, it's all good. ⁓ But yeah, because we just don't wanna, I guess, not try, right? So as many times as we tried to do something, mean, HVAC companies, any sort of boring business, I'd be down for, but not trying anything at all, I think that was kind of the failure. So as all these things didn't work out,
damn I tried, damn I tried, damn I tried, damn I tried. And while those things are still happening, I'm still doing, I still have an actively growing business, I'm still doing pretty damn good. So there's that, and it just sucks for him that he still has to go into an employer every single day. But I think that that's all of our dreams is like, at least the people that I know that are married that talk about why or their why, it's because they're trying to get this sort of freedom for them and their spouse.
So my end goal is that if I can build my business to a place where he could quit and not worry, then why wouldn't I build my business to that point?
And it takes a while, like your spouse is not gonna be like, yeah, babe, make all the, like they want you to make all this money, but they're scared shitless. So you gotta give them a little bit of like grace too, right? Because they're going into a place every single day and they're seeing the same amount every day. And there's weeks where you don't make any money. And then there's weeks where you make a lot of money. And until those things get consistent, it takes years. And who has years of patience? My husband did.
I came home with my first thousand dollar check and he's like, oh, yay, babe, yeah, great. But he was very patient and he was very gracious with me. So it is really, really tough. But the other part of it is the freedom and the ability to be able to say what I want when I want. In my old job, by the way, I also used to work in politics. That was incredibly polarizing. And as many people say, polarizing things in politics.
it's really handholding and like it puts you in handcuffs is what I should have said. You can't say or be the person authentically that you want to say or be because no matter what you say or do, there are consequences to it. And when you work in corporate or you're in some sort of high profile corporate sort of role like I was before, same sort of thing. So I never felt up until the last few years that I could truly authentically be myself.
in every form of my life, not just at home, but also at work. And that's the thing that you give up, I guess, or I guess that's the reward. If it's not the pay, it's the freedom. And to me, that's what the freedom means is that I get to literally get up every day and be 100 % me. If someone doesn't agree with my values or they don't like something about me or my husband because this has happened before,
It doesn't necessarily affect my life or my job. They have the ability to go away and I have the ability to ask them to go find somebody else. And I've had to use that card and now I love that. And people please repeat that people used to know and love when I was a chamber commerce director doing networking stuff. I used to have a networking company too, I forgot about that. Like.
My job was to make them happy and help them all the time. And they'd walk in my office and my job was to give a shit. And now that was Patricia in her 20s and 30s. I care, I want people to like me. I'm working really hard. It hurts my feelings if people don't like me. Patricia in her 40s, truly after loss and pain and having to go through all these things and just with my husband alone, for example, or my family, doesn't give a fuck. I had a couple fucks left.
back in like my early like 39, 40s. And I was really careful about who I would give them to. I'm like, oh, I care about you. So I'll give you a little bit of a fuck, here you go. Not in like the most literal of sense, but like the most emotional of senses or whatever. And now I just don't, keep them for me in the most super important things. My family, my business, my friends.
It's pretty simple.
Because no one is gonna 100 % like everything that you do all the time and I can't 1000 % bat it every single day with every single person in this universe. This podcast is gonna be all over the world. There are gonna be people that are gonna hate it and they're gonna people that are gonna love it and there are people that are just not gonna care. I can't lose sleep over the ones that don't necessarily like it. Like if you don't like it, that's okay. Go find something else. There is something else out there for you. I don't need to hear about it either, right?
Because when they started putting unlike and all the un-smilies and all the other things on Facebook, remember it used to just be likes? And all you had was the ability to like something on Facebook. You remember, Tom, let's talk about Tom. Tom, remember Tom? Tom was so good to us. MySpace Tom. You remember your MySpace profile? Damn. Facebook's 20, I think 21 years old now. Instagram's like 17.
happened to MySpace? MySpace was like the thing. I think MySpace was out before even like smartphones. I remember having like a Palm Pilot and thinking I was like the shit and then Blackberries were coming out, but you couldn't MySpace on it. But I had to sit in my giant desktop with a tower. And then I would like sit at my screen and I would like edit my music to be all like sexy like. Because whoever I was dating at the time, I wanted them to be jealous or whatever. And then you can like switch your friends up to your top.
And that was like the most shady part of MySpace is like who got moved off of your top five friends. There was an angry button. Like, so anyways, I hope you love the show.
There are lot of fun, awesome wins as well. Like the time I went to Jamaica and smoked a cigar with my husband and got like one of the largest companies in the world as a client. And I'm happy to tell you about that another time because like who does that? And honestly, that type of shit happens all the time, all the freaking time. ⁓ And that'll be an episode is how to be authentically yourself randomly, in any place ever, even a doctor's appointment because that's also just recently happened.
and still walk out netting business. ⁓ That should be a course. But I think the key is putting yourself out there and just being you. So with that, I bid you adieu. We shall see or hear each other on the next time. And I really hope you liked it. And I really, really actually had fun talking with you today. Take care.