Much of the success Pati Mills has seen in her life can be attributed to knowing the right people at the right time – the same kind of associations she cultivates with her networking group the Greneteam Gals.
Her life has been an interesting one. “I bought my house on the lake with a six-car garage with my art. How many artists do you know that can do that?” said Pati, smiling. “And, I never had a contract.” She has her seaplane license and her first public speaking engagement was alongside former first lady Barbara Bush. Pati spent three days and $50 to become a security guard to gain access to Cypress Gardens in an attempt to snap photos to help to save it. She even gained a one of a kind position with real estate tycoon David Seigel as his Corporate Facilities Artist for 28 of his Westgate Resorts – stories chronicling Mills’ meaningful life experiences go on. Here a few great ones.
Executive Business Women’s Network
Twenty-five years ago, Pati Mills founded the Executive Business Women’s Network. She wanted to meet smart people – leaders of the community. She didn’t want another social club. “I don’t talk about my kids or dogs or backaches,” she said. The network was the same in that regard. “Be specific, say who you are, what you’re working on, what your needs are, sit down and shut up,” she said.
The group did become successful and certainly, many business connections were made, but Pati eventually phased the group out to pursue other ventures.
Painting for Publix
The artist is perhaps most well-known locally for her work as a Publix muralist.
When she was first contacted by Publix, Mills owned a small craft shop off of Dundee Road called The Cinnamon Tree where she hand-made ceramic tiles. According to Mills, the supermarket chain had heard about her through someone in her network. They called Pati to inquire about having the façade of their store painted. She agreed and got to work.
She lined the room of her shop with sheets of 4x8 plywood as her easel. Pati stacked the tiles, using a number and letter system. She and her children worked on the storefront piece. She said, “I gave them the first one and they said that they loved it and wanted to do it again.”
The first murals depicted a cornucopia. One day she got a call from Publix that they weren’t doing murals on their buildings anymore. The city wanted to charge them a sign tax as the murals depicted items sold in the store.
“So, I said, ‘Well isn’t the next one over by the park in Lakeland? Why don’t I do a park scene?’ They loved it!” remembered Pati. From then on, she’d find a distinguishing landmark or something symbolic of whatever town the mural was to go in.
Mills went on to paint 200 murals for Publix Supermarkets.
Pati’s Pottery
Another opportunity opened up for her one day when a city employee stopped in her shop. He was looking for crafters for a craft village at Cypress Gardens. Pati remembered, “He said, ‘I’m looking for a potter.’ And I lied. I said, ‘You are? I’m a potter!’”
It wasn’t too big of a fib. She had been pouring slip and making dishes but hadn’t forayed into the pottery wheel. How hard could it be? “The first thing I did was buy a book on how to be a potter because I’d told him I was a Master Potter, that was in the book. Then I bought a pottery wheel. In three months – just three months – I had five thousand pots. Now, they weren’t all beautiful, but I took a picture of them and put the bad side in the back.” Next thing you know, her name was in seven-foot letters at Cypress Gardens – ‘Pati’s Pottery.’
“My first year, I made $84,000,” she said.
The Greneteam Gals
Pati’s current women’s networking group, modeled after the Executive Business Women’s Network, started two years ago with twelve members attending the first meeting. The Greenlefe community, where Pati was living at the time, was their original meeting space. This is where their moniker, the Greneteam Gals, stems from.
A petite woman, on the lower end of five feet tall, Pati Mills has no trouble commanding a room. Twenty women flowed into the meeting space at Bambu Café. Each put their cellphone into a basket where it would remain until the end of the meeting. This isn’t a social hour. For the Greneteam Gals, it’s time to get down to business.
The business cards of real estate agents, former county commissioners, writers, bakers, and other female entrepreneurs are exchanged. Budding deals and business connections are formed. No chit chat, or Pati who has earned and finds amusement in the name they’ve affectionately given her, ‘The General’ will call you out for interrupting the speaker. “I’m real strict about them not chit-chatting when the speaker is speaking,” she would tell me later.
To keep the group intimate and useful for the members, they meet twice monthly with the opportunity to attend one of two meetings on that day. “The point of the meeting is not to be chatty, but to really listen to who’s speaking and see if we can help them,” said Mills. Pati gives every one of the members a blank notebook so that as the ladies enjoy lunch and listen intently to the speaker, they can take notes. “The whole purpose of the meeting is that I want to be able to market you and support you,” said Pati. The meeting commenced with a prayer and a pledge followed by Pati’s instructions. “You’ll say who you are, what you’re working on, what your needs are,” she said.
Each attendee has three minutes to give their elevator speech to the group.
“It’s very important that you contact at least five people that were at the meeting that you had at least a little bit of a connection with,” said Pati to the group. If the person doesn’t answer, she encouraged them to leave a short message simply asking if there is anything they can help with. Pati wants the connections to be honest and organic. I even got a call or two in the weeks following the meeting.
After the meeting, Mills spoke openly and fervently about the group. She asked me, “What if you met the best of the best – you met the leaders of the community?”
The Greneteam Gals is her answer to that question.
If you’re interested in attending the next meeting or becoming a member, find their group by searching ‘Greneteam Gals’ on Facebook.
