Katrina Owens (00:00.792)
Hello and welcome back to Fame Ready, the personal branding and public relations podcast to show you that anything is possible. Yes, including feeling famous. I'm your host, personal branding and public relations expert, Katrina Owens. And welcome back to the show. Feels so good to be back in the swing of like recording this podcast. It was nice to take the...

Some are off, I guess. I mean, I went like pretty much a month and a half without recording anything as we kind of worked on this rebrand, but it's felt really good to like kind of come back to this and be able to share some like long form thoughts with all of you. And today I've got a really good one. We are gonna dive right into why you need to stop working with a speaking coach.

before you have any gigs booked, okay? Because this is something that I'm seeing so frequently and I was trying to figure out why this was because I want y'all to know that I love speaking coaches. I have one, I love her, shout out Coco, shout out to all the really fabulous speaking coaches that I know. The problem is,

I really believe it's when an entrepreneur, business owner, or really anyone for that matter wants to start doing more speaking, we think that naturally we need a speaking coach because I think their title makes us feel like, surely if I want to speak on more stages, a speaking coach is the person to hire. And I really think that you should work with a speaking coach, but they're not the first step, okay?

And today we're gonna talk about why, because when it comes to booking speaking gigs, preparing for them, becoming a speaker, you actually need to start with public relations. You actually need to start with your personal brand, even before PR. And I wanna tell you a little bit about why, because this is a mistake that I see business owners making all the time. Working with a speaking coach is a really big investment. So I really want you to understand

Katrina Owens (02:17.95)
what that process actually looks like so you can make a better investment into your speaking career so you can feel like you are seeing the results that you want to achieve. So here's the thing. Let's get this first thing like right out of the way, because I think there are two reasons why someone goes to see a speaking coach. Okay. The first one is very obvious. That first reason is people start going to see a speaking coach

because they know that they're doing more public speaking. Either they have stages booked or they want to start speaking on stage. So they go to a speaking coach to work on the signature talk. Great. That's really like what we're going to focus on today. But the second reason why someone might go to a speaking coach, at least in my experience, is just to be able to show up more confidently, to be in a networking event, whether it's online or in person, to show up.

to feel like you're presenting yourself the way that you really want to so you're remembered, recognized, all of that good stuff. I actually think that that's great. So if that's you and you're like, I just need to build my confidence so I can start to go to more events as an attendee. If you're feeling like you wanna be able to speak more clearly and concisely about yourself, actually think like getting in the room with a speaking coach, that's perfect. If that's you, don't listen to anything I'm to say.

If you are part of the first crowd, the person who is like, God, I wanna do more speaking, and maybe you've done a couple gigs, maybe you haven't, but something that you wanna do more of, and you're about to invest thousands of dollars into a speaking coach because that is what they cost, let me stop you right there. I want you to listen to this episode first because I am going to make sure that you know exactly what you're going to get into as you start to build your speaking career because

Working with a speaking coach is not the first step. Okay, so let's take it back. What is the first step? If you want to be a speaker, a highly recognized, maybe even a highly paid speaker, it starts with your personal brand. Okay? You need to be uniquely positioned, highly differentiated. You need to have clear messaging content that shows you speaking about the expertise that you claim you can speak.

Katrina Owens (04:43.104)
so confidently on. If you're not showing up on social media in that way, and if you're feeling it hard to even create talking head content, if you're one of those people that kind of stumbles over your introduction, like if someone asks you like, well, who are you? And what do you do for work? Or how do you help people? And you get stuck on that? I hate to break it to you, but your personal brand is not clear. And I say this with so much love because this was me.

When I started my business, we were a more traditional marketing and public relations agency, actually. out, Knockout Directive. I'm wearing my old agency hat. I also didn't know as a personal brand what my messaging was, how to introduce myself properly. I didn't know any of that. And that is why when I did my very, very first speaking gig ever, which was to an audience of 200 entrepreneurs in downtown Vancouver,

That speaking gig, although it was kind of sexy, very fun, a really great opportunity, it didn't move the needle in my business, okay? I didn't secure clients from that gig. Sure, I gained some followers, but that opportunity did not create the kind of momentum that it could have because I was really unclear on my personal brand. And the talk that I ended up giving...

during that event was entirely unrelated to what I do as a business owner. And that's a shame. That really is a missed opportunity. And unfortunately, we can't go back and change the past. But what we can do is continue to improve and get better. And that's really what I want you to understand first and foremost. If you are someone and you've got your eyes on stages and you're like, want to start

landing on stage and being asked to speak at events, if your personal brand is unclear, you're going to have a really hard time doing that. And if you choose to engage with a speaking coach, they're going to be a little bit confused and lost on how to help you. Because a speaking coach is not like a personal branding coach or personal branding consultant.

Katrina Owens (06:59.286)
A speaking coach is going to help you show up confidently. They're going to help you take your story and your expertise and craft it into something that's engaging and informative and educational. But if you don't even know what the goal of your personal brand, your business, what you really want to be known for, if you don't know that, you are not going to be able to convey that to your speaking coach, which is going to make the keynote creation process

really challenging. Because at the end of the day, when we are business owners who are also doing speaking, our speaking gig must relate to what we sell in our business or what we offer, because that's where expertise comes from. And maybe you're someone who thinks to yourself, well, I run a marketing agency, but I'm really passionate about talking about this particular social justice cause. I don't know.

Let's just be vague because it's too much political things happening right now. So we're going to be really vague about that. But so you say you're a marketing agents, you're a marketing agency owner, but you have like a passion for some sort of humanitarian initiative. And that's actually what you want to speak on. You've still got to start crafting the personal brand to reflect that. So if you don't have that connection to yourself and what you really, really want, you're not going to get the opportunities that you're looking for.

And more importantly than that, even if you do, because I'm not here to say that like it's impossible to land a speaking opportunity if you are so unclear on your personal brand. I mean, I did it and I've seen clients do it. But just because you do one speaking gig on a particular topic doesn't mean that the invites are going to continue to roll in. You become a referable speaker when you speak on a topic that really resonates, but you have

the personal brand, the social proof, the authority to back it up. I always say one speaking gig is a fluke. Two is momentum. I know I said I always say that, but I just came up with it right now. But it's so true because I really like, I mean, it was my own history, right? And sorry, I'm giving Dexter like a little bit of a belly rub as I talk about this. I've been gone all morning, so I think he's feeling a little bit tossed to the side.

Katrina Owens (09:26.254)
excuse us while I give them this little chest massage. honestly, that's that first step, not knowing what your personal brand really stands for, not feeling clear on what you want to be known for, it's going to make that speaking process so much more challenging. OK, so that really is that first step. And you're going to do your speaking coach, whoever that is, your future speaking coach, so

many more favors if you can go into that particular engagement with, okay, I know what I want to be known for. I know what my goals are for the speaking engagements I'm going to secure. Help me craft the signature talk to reflect all of this. And honestly, this is actually something we're working on in the Fame Ready Entrepreneur Program right now. So if you're new around here, the Fame Ready Entrepreneur Program is my 12-month group program and membership. So...

When business owners join, they have access to me on weekly group coaching calls. I am also constantly posting new opportunities that come across my desk, like events that are looking for speakers, podcasts that are looking for guests, and media looking for people to spotlight. So if speaking is something that interests you, then you're going to want to jump into that program. So I'll link it in the show notes. But that brings me to my next point, you guys. Every speaking gig is different.

And I really went on that journey myself over the past couple months because I spoke at three different events over the course of three months. And although when that very first event came around, I crafted a signature talk with my speaking coach and I delivered it and it went so well and I'm so proud of myself. My speaking coach is actually in the room at that event and I could like see her in the background.

while I was giving my talk, could see her like in the back row, just like beaming like a proud mom. So that's how knew I was crushing it. But after that event was over, there was about a month till my next speaking gig. And I realized that the engagement or the talk that I had done at that first event, it didn't really fit for what I was going to do in that second month because the audience was going to be a little bit different. The theme of the event was different.

Katrina Owens (11:53.974)
And then I ended up changing my entirely, actually. And then when my third event came around, we changed it again. So yeah, obviously I was building up my confidence month over month, speaking gig over speaking gig, but the signature talk was always changing. And the benefit for me was that I had a very clear goal through all of these different speaking gigs. And I mean, I work in marketing. This is what I do.

So it's very easy for me to identify the audience, the theme, what I should really be focused on in that talk. That was really easy for me. But if you're coming at this with no experience and you've never actually spoken at an event before, given a full length talk, just diving in and crafting a signature talk is actually a bit backwards.

I would rather you go in scared, go into your very first speaking gig feeling like you didn't invest in the speaking coach. You pulled something together that you felt like was really gonna hit and then you just test it. I would rather you do that because that's going to help you learn a lot about what you actually need support on because speaking coaches can assist on such a wide variety of things, right? They can help you create your talk, but they can also help you just.

speak more clearly, show up confidently, what does a commanding presence look like? So I actually think it's really important to have some self-awareness over what you feel like you could actually benefit the most from. Because let me tell you something, coaching sessions with a speaking coach, those aren't inexpensive. So I would much prefer for you to have kind of crafted something already that feels like,

it maybe reflects your expertise. Maybe it's reflective of your personal brand because if you're gonna start speaking on stages, you've gotta start taking your personal brand seriously. And so once you have that, it's going to be way easier to start working with a speaking coach consistently because for me, I know those first couple sessions at the beginning of this three month period, I was able to say like, okay, here are...

Katrina Owens (14:12.494)
Like what I think I want to talk about here is what I've chatted about in my talks in the past. Here's what seemed to resonate with an audience. Here's what, you know, I felt like could use some help. Oh, and we're back to this zooming in this camera, just zooming in on my, um, there we go. Oh, haven't, haven't recorded a podcast in so long. I forgot this camera gets a mind of its own. Sorry about that. For all of you just listening, wondering like what.

Like, what is the alarm? I have this webcam. I really need to just like make the investment into a higher quality piece of camera equipment. do. It's on the list, trust me, but it has a mind of its own. So if you ever get, if you're ever watching this on YouTube and see this like camera, just zoom in on my face. It is so unintentional. So anyways, let's take it back. So when it comes to working with a speaking coach on that signature talk,

Having the awareness around like, this is what I like to talk about, this is what my expertise really is. God, it's gonna help you so much. It's gonna make crafting that talk so much easier. And it's really going to help your speaking coach be able to serve you where you really need to be served. Because the third piece of all of this is you need to know where you're going to find the opportunities. The most kind of comical part about what I'm seeing in this trend of people

investing in speaking coaches is they actually don't know how to pitch themselves yet. And so I really think it's putting the cart before the horse. If you don't have any upcoming speaking gigs, well, you

aren't really preparing for anything. Like, I'm going to be so blunt right now. It's kind of a waste of time and money, okay? First, let's get some speaking gigs on the calendar because the more information you can give your speaking coach about the audience that's gonna be in the room, the format of the event, by the way, because doing a keynote in front of a 200-person audience is so much different than running a workshop for 20 people.

Katrina Owens (16:25.826)
And when I talk about speaking gigs, I'm using that broad strokes word to kind of cover all types. But how you deliver a talk, the content that you provide, the type of talk, it's so different. I'm not going in front of a 20 person audience and just coming out the gate sharing, I don't know, doing a full like.

Ted talk keynote style like that's very performative like that's not for a 20 person Workshop the 20 person workshop. They want a framework. They want examples They want to feel personal connection to you're probably gonna riff off of them. You're probably going to have more audience engagement and I actually think that's what most people are unprepared for because I think sometimes if we think Okay, I'm work with a speaking coach and that means I'm gonna land on this big stage You probably

won't right away. Because this is the other thing. I mean, this is a whole other discussion. We could talk about how to get speaking gigs all day long. I'm sure there's like a previous episode about this from the KO your brand days, but we can, we can talk about this again in the future. How you secure a speaking gig is through having content of you speaking at events. And a lot of that is going to come from starting small. So for me,

My very first speaking gig ever was to an audience of 200 people. Vancouver, super sexy. If you are from Vancouver, it was Internet Masterminds and the very first Internet Masterminds event. So it had some notoriety. It was pretty fun. They basically threw these foam balls at whatever speaker people liked. Let me back it up.

just because that sounds insane as I describe it. So there were like five speakers and we each had to present like a different strategy to the audience. then the...

Katrina Owens (18:38.91)
audience, whoever, like whatever speaker they liked the most, like while you were speaking, they would throw foam balls at you. It's quite jarring. I'm going to link it. I'm pretty sure the video is still on YouTube of my talk. So I'm actually going to link it in the show notes because that would also be a really interesting talk for you guys to actually look at as a case study. Because for me, I was so new into my business. I had only worked in my business full time for three, not even three months when the opportunity had come up.

So when it came to like a marketing strategy, I was like, I don't know, like I was running a marketing and PR agency, but like, I felt like I didn't have enough client results or like strategies to really share. So what I ended up doing was I basically talked about the strategy that I was using to grow my own business at the time. I mean, people really loved it.

go like head to the show notes to like watch the video. Like I was having like so many balls thrown at me. Like it was such a fun experience, honestly. And it really lit a fire under me knowing that like, I got to do more of this. I got to speak on more stages. But the topic that I spoke on wasn't really relevant to like what I wanted to continue speaking on.

So I had a very humbling moment after that because it did my first speaking gig, it went great. You know, it was a very monumental moment in my personal brand. But then my second speaking gig ever was to an audience of like 20 business owners in an orthopedic shoe store in downtown Vancouver at like 7 a.m. to like a local neighborhood business association. Okay. And if you've heard me talk about this,

in my keynote presentation, because this is a story that I tell in my talks. But I could have been like, it's a small audience. Who cares? Keep it casual. No need to prepare so much. But I really treated that small event like it was a big deal, because it was to me. Because that was the first time I would ever deliver a full-length presentation on public relations for small businesses.

Katrina Owens (20:59.296)
Obviously, it's still not super related to what I talk about now, but doing that full-length presentation, like I probably talked for around 45 minutes to an hour with questions. That talk, me preparing it, me testing it in front of an audience, that really set the tone for how I wanted to deliver speaking gigs in the future. So what it allowed me to do was have like a base presentation.

to test different frameworks, to understand how I would deliver certain information, where I needed different examples or different visuals. And I really think that's what all business owners need. And after that, I did some larger 50 person events. For all of last year, it really was this smaller, between 20 to 50 people, small room.

not like a big stage or anything super sexy or intimidating for that matter, but I got to like kind of test out this presentation that I would do called the Fame Formula. And I also spoke on like a couple different panels, which also allowed me to like practice, because a panel, like although sometimes people scoff at panels, panels are challenging in itself because you have to be able to do two things really well. You need to be able to answer questions.

about your perspective and opinions on the fly. You're never really gonna know what those questions are. They might try to guide you, but most of the time you're just like pulling from your own brain on the spot in front of an audience. But what makes a really, really good panelist, and this is something that I take a lot of pride in doing, but I noticed a lot of people aren't great at doing this and that's okay. There's no like riffing off of the other people. So when I speak on a panel,

I'm very conscious of what other people are saying so I can kind of bring in other panelists points into my response. And I'm very conscious to like use different names, pull different examples, tie things back. Because that shows that you're actively listening, but it also helps the moderator, helps the event because it gives you an opportunity to show the audience what the common thread between all the panelists are. And that's what makes a really, really good panelist. And that also helps

Katrina Owens (23:21.526)
like doing panels, if you are new to public speaking, it's a great way to feel like the spotlight isn't just on you. So if you do have like a panelist opportunity to come up, I really would encourage you to take it, because it's going to show you how to speak on your content and like kind of show up differently, which I think is really cool. So that's speaking on a panel. Forgot where I was going with all of this. I guess those.

those are just the two ways that you can really start to get comfortable speaking. So that's what I really spent all of last year doing. And then when 2025 kicked off, I had a feeling that this was the year I was going to start getting comfortable on bigger stages. And it really was. But I attribute to feeling like so well prepared because I had spent so much time working these smaller opportunities in smaller rooms.

I had no ego about it, by the way, because I don't think you should. I think when opportunities come across your desk, you gotta recognize where you're at and be really aware of it. If you've never spoken on stage before, why would an event coordinator put you on a stage in front of a hundred person audience if there's no content of you speaking, if they can't refer to like videos or like even seeing you like speak on a podcast? Like as someone who plans events,

And as having speakers come on to some of my future events, I'm picking my speaker who's very, very specifically for like very specific reasons. And it is really important to me that my speakers show up professionally, that they are great speakers, they're engaging, because at the end of the day, the event is a reflection of me and my business. So let's not scoff at the coordinators that are very picky about who they put up on their stage.

So that means for you, recognize that the stakes are really high, but to get these higher and higher stakes opportunities, you really, really do need public relations. Because I can honestly say the opportunities that I secured for myself this year, if I hadn't been using PR, I wouldn't have secured any of them.

Katrina Owens (25:41.582)
And so when I look at business owners who are working with speaking coaches, but they haven't done the work on their personal brand, they're not showing up speaking in their own content and there's no authority building through public relations. I'm like, so where are the opportunities gonna come from? And I think that's a really important question to ask yourself. I honestly think like, you know, when you...

need support with your finances, you go to a financial advisor. When you need dental help, you go to your dentist. So I think sometimes we get confused and think, okay, I want to start speaking more. So obviously that means I need to go to a speaking coach. And I hope you learned today that that's just simply not the case. You want to start speaking on more stages. You need to build a press ready or should I say fame ready?

personal brand and you need to use public relations to start securing more and more opportunities for yourself. That's what I do. And that is what so many of my clients see success doing both one-on-one and in my fame ready entrepreneur program. So if you're looking for a place to start, I really recommend my fame ready entrepreneur program. You guys, I have some women in there right now that are building global speaking careers. Okay. They are like going on their world tour.

There's a lot of people out here in my audience that are starting to adapt this world tour language. Just know it came from me. Okay. My keynote talk is actually all about going to my own world tour. So I love to see other people going on their on their world tours. And you know what? It starts in my fame ready entrepreneur program. That is the place where you're going to start to feel like the Taylor Swift of your industry, where you're going to learn how to build a personal brand that gets you on more stages, but then how to actually

secure those stages. And then once you have enough stages under your belt, well, I'll show you exactly how you can start to get paid for those opportunities. That is something that I'm so excited to be doing more and more of right now and into 2026. So I'm sure I will have so much more to chat about on that in a different episode. But what I really wanted your takeaway today to be is if you're thinking about working with a speaking coach, just understand

Katrina Owens (28:01.376)
what that process for becoming a speaker really, really looks like. And if you need your help, if you're trying to figure out yourself, know that you don't have to do that. Okay. Connect with me on Instagram at Katrina Owens PR. You can follow the podcast on Instagram at Get Fame Ready. The link to find out more details about the Fame Ready entrepreneur program is in the show notes and I'll see you all next week. Okay. Goodbye, my famous friends. I'll see you all later.

Toodles!