Who is Patrick Barttels?

Patrick Barttels

 

Owner of  Power Alley Copywriting

I was born in Yakima, a city in central Washington, and moved with the family to southeastern Washington and a town called Kennewick.  I graduated from high school and after a tepid attempt to continue straight on to college, I ditched the world of academia and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. 

The best part of my military career was a guaranteed job as a journalist.  I was the editor of a 24-page weekly base newspaper.  We would write all the news, shoot all the pictures, and paste up every issue by hand, myself and two other airmen. 

After three years in West Texas, I came home from the military and decided to get “serious” about a career.  I enrolled in the engineering program at the local college. 

Upon graduation I spent about ten unrewarding years at the City of Pasco, Washington in the engineering department.  But engineering was not for me, so I left and went into sales. 

I have been there ever since.  Pretty good at it too! Don’t get me wrong, though.  I developed a seller’s personality along the way. 

I spent my school years working on becoming baseball’s next Johnny Bench.  I was a die-hard Cincinnati Reds fan and lived and died with the “Big Red Machine.”  I played baseball through high school and discovered I wasn’t much of a prospect, sad to say. 

I also developed a love of books, particularly adventure novels   I devoured all the Robert Ludlums and Clive Cusslers and spend my days waiting for the next John Sandford or Michael Connelly to be released. 

All those fabulous novels and stories, however, fueled my biggest passion.  I discovered I am a natural-born storyteller.  I dropped into a Toastmasters meeting one day, and the rest is history.   

Toastmasters International is an educational organization promoting communication, public speaking and leadership around the world. 

"We were just sitting there, enjoying the sun and a dog jumped up in between us! So we sat there and enjoyed each other's company until his owner turned to corner of the trail ~5 minutes later."

I discovered this is the world for me!  I jumped in with both feet and less than ten years later I am a Distinguished Toastmaster, the highest individual honor in that esteemed fraternity.

This allows me to combine my favorite pastimes, writing and speaking, and getting in front of crowds and sharing my stories. 

As a Distinguished Toastmaster I have written and delivered well over 100 speeches, including many contest-winning speeches.  Trust me, if they play well in front of a crowd, they will be very effective in print as well.

This could be the start of a beautiful friendship . . .